


Accidentally Ours

by Aintfraidanoghosts



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Baby!Fic, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Older Man/Younger Woman, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2020-06-24 09:49:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 38,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19721230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aintfraidanoghosts/pseuds/Aintfraidanoghosts
Summary: When the Doctor and Rose saved a planet from a widespread plague, little did they know that it would mean eventually gaining custody of an orphaned baby girl.  As they navigate unexpected guardianship and what it means for their relationship, they learn how to negotiate paths, pitfalls, and how to be a family.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’m baaaaack! I hope you enjoy this insane little venture, I started it for Trope Bingo back in...what...2013? I’m FINALLY getting my writing mojo back so, by popular demand, I’m finishing it! All of my current WIPs also have new chapters, I’m just waiting until they’re further along to finish posting them. Caedmon is a genius and has been one of my biggest cheerleaders for this fic, and TenRoseForeverandEver is a brilliant and perfect beta. Any mistakes are mine and only because I added a few little things post-beta!

The Doctor had experienced a great deal of baffling events over the last 900 years of his long existence.After all, he'd been in the front seat of the spacecraft that first brought the genetic mistake known as the platypus to live its life on Earth.However, nothing had ever prepared him for what this odd, blue-tinted clerk was telling him at that moment.

“What do you mean, ‘guardians’?”

“I think it means what you think it means, Doctor,” Rose replied, her voice a bit shaky as she shifted the tiny bundle in her arms.

“We’ve never even met these people, Rose!” he barreled on.“And yet they name _us_ to take custody of their daughter?”

“You two saved us,” the clerk offered.“Ten years ago there was a plague that was threatening to wipe out the population.Doctor, you saved millions of lives by developing that vaccine.The Drs. Zebahathan met at the clinic you set up.”

“She has no other family?”

“No, sir, none.And the will clearly names you, the Doctor and Rose Tyler as legal guardians of little Anashamaya here.We are simply following the laws of our planet.”

“And if we refuse?”

“Doctor-” Rose began, but he cut her off.

“No, really, Rose.This is not our responsibility, we never agreed to this.Blimey, you’re only twenty years old!”

“And we can’t just _leave_ her!”

“Oh yes we can!”

“Doctor!”

“If you refuse custody, the child will be placed in a work home…obviously she is too small for any real labor now, but she will be raised and fit for the farms before she knows it!”

Rose’s eyes flashed dangerously as she whipped her head around to face the clerk.“You’ll do _what_ with her?” 

The clerk dropped the file he was holding, and his eyes went wide at Rose’s response.“It’s…standard procedure, ma’am.She will be well-cared for, I assure you…” 

Rose clutched the tiny pink bundle tighter against her.“Over my dead body!Doctor, you’re just going to sit back and let these people take her to a… _child labor camp_?” 

“It’s not up to us to change their customs, Rose." 

Rose’s mouth dropped open.“You’re serious?So what, we only change things when it suits your own agenda?” 

He sighed.“Let’s just sign the refusal papers and get out of here.We have places to be.”

He watched Rose look down at the child in her arms and take in a deep breath.When she finally met his gaze, she had a steely resolve on her face the Doctor was entirely too familiar with.“Fine, Doctor.You go.But I’m not leaving this baby.”

“Stop being ridiculous, Rose!Give her back to the nice man and get on the TARDIS!”

“What’s the matter with you?”

“With _me_?”

“Yes, with you!She needs us!How can you sit there and just… _refuse_ her?Too domestic?Can't stand to think of giving a baby a better life?Her parents trusted us to take care of her!"

"It's not our job!We never even met the parents!"

Rose sighed."You know what, Doctor, it’s fine.You want to go, just go.Leave.Go pick up Jack from that pleasure planet and I’ll take care of her.I’ll get a job and a flat and we’ll be just fine, won’t we, little one?”She cooed and smiled the last bit to the tiny creature in her arms.

His hearts began racing in panic at her threat.She couldn’t have any idea what saying things like that did to him, but it felt like icy daggers piercing through his veins.As if he could just leave her on a planet somewhere.When he replied, he fought to keep his voice low and even.“That is out of the question and you know it.” 

“Doctor, just…” Rose huffed and stepped a bit closer, holding the baby out towards him.“Look at her.How can we abandon her?” 

“Rose, this isn’t like having a _puppy_!She’s a living, breathing, sentient creature who will need constant care!”Rose rolled her eyes and placed the bundle of pink blankets into his arms, which came up instinctively to keep her from falling to the floor.“She will need food and nappies and she’s not entirely human, we could never take her to the doctor…”

"So what are you then, a barrister?"

He ignored her remark, instead charging on with all of the reasons taking in a baby was a horrible idea."We live in a _spaceship_!Not only a spaceship, but a _time and space ship_.How many times have we had to run for our lives this _week_?"

"You ask like I'm keeping count!"

"I am.Six, and it's only Tuesday!"

"'Time is relative on the TARDIS, Rose...there is no Tuesday on the TARDIS, Rose...'" she mocked in a horrible approximation of his accent. 

He was about to come back at her with a witty remark when the the tiny creature in his arms began wriggling and squirming, no doubt unaccustomed to having the adults in the room focusing their attention elsewhere. He glanced down and carefully regarded her, this impossibly small _thing_ that was rapidly causing the Time Lord equivalent of a migraine to build behind his eyes.Once he was focused on her, she stilled and went wide-eyed as their gazes met.He didn’t have much experience with babies, but he supposed this one was nice-enough looking.In fact, the more he studied her, the more he realized what a beautiful child she actually was.She looked human enough to pass, with her peaches-and-cream complexion, tiny pink mouth, and large, inquisitive blue eyes that were watching his face intently.

“And what do you think you’re looking at?”he murmured, brushing a lock of dark hair off her face.

A tiny, happy noise escaped the baby’s mouth as it spread into a wide, toothless grin. She grasped onto his pinky and thumb with either hand and pulled his palm in front of her face.She went practically cross-eyed trying to focus on it before letting out a happy coo and trying to shove his entire appendage in her mouth.

The Doctor chuckled.“I think you’ll find that there are far better things in the universe to eat than my fingers, sweetheart.”

“Don't think I didn't see the exact moment when your hearts melted just there.”

He turned and met Rose’s gaze.She had come up beside him and was beaming, reaching in to tickle at the baby’s tummy, laughing as she let out a high-pitched squeak.

The Doctor chuckled again, the low, happy noise one he had no idea could come from his mouth.He turned and looked at Rose, who was beaming up at him, her lovely brown eyes sparkling.“You know what a bad idea this is.”

“Has that ever stopped us before?”

"Rose..." he began before she cut him off.

"Doctor..."She placed her hand on his arm and gazed up at him, her eyes bright and shining."I don't know if I could live with myself knowing that I left her here when I had the chance to help her.This life we have, you don't just give up.You take a stand, you say 'no', and you have the courage to do what's right.This is what's right, Doctor, and you know it."

He sighed, all of the fight rushing out of him at her words.She was right, she was always right, but it didn't necessarily mean that their life was the best one for the child."Fine. But if we can find her a better life, a _safer_ life...”

"I hear you, Doctor. Loud and clear," Rose replied."We ought to take her back to Earth and get her settled before we pick up Jack.My mum can help out, I imagine the fact that I'm still alive shows she knows a thing or two about taking care of babies.” 

The Doctor sighed, turning his attention back to the gurgling little child who was currently using his thumb as a teether.“Fair point.Let’s sign these papers and get her back to the TARDIS.But _you're_ the one who's going to tell Jackie.

******

The clerk had arranged to have all of Ana’s (Rose had insisted on shortening her name, “Anashamaya” was too much of a mouthful in her opinion) things brought to the TARDIS.It wasn’t much, a few bags of clothes and toys and a few essential baby items that, despite the fact that they were on a planet a hundred thousand light years from Earth and approximately five centuries in the future, Rose managed to recognize as a pram, a swing, and a portable cot.She held Ana as the Doctor lugged the items into the console room, enjoying the sweet little noises the baby made as they sat in the bright sunshine. She was approximately three earth months old according to the paperwork, and Rose's heart ached for the little girl.She hadn't the faintest idea that her entire universe was in upheaval.According to the clerk at the records office, both of her parents had been killed in what equated to a car wreck on this planet.If it hadn't been for her secure, protective infant seat, she most likely would have gone with them. 

"I found this in one of her bags."

Rose glanced up and smiled gratefully at the Doctor, who was carrying a baby bottle filled with water and a packet of dried formula.He sat next to them on the bench and aimed the sonic at the bottle, warming the water before sanitizing his hands and preparing Ana's meal like an expert.

"You seem to know your way around a baby bottle."

The Doctor stiffened almost imperceptibly, something Rose probably would not have picked up on had she not been sitting only a few inches from him.He recovered quickly, handing Rose the now-mixed bottle of formula."Well, genius, me.Not too difficult to deduce that powder plus water equals a baby drink."

She adjusted Ana in her arms, cradling her head the way she used to with her baby cousins and offered her the bottle. She attacked it eagerly, surprising Rose.The baby hadn't indicated at all that she was hungry.

"Wow," she said."No crying or anything and here she's acting like we've been starving her.What's that all about?"

"Might be part of her genetics," the Doctor mused, watching her suck down the formula quickly."I'll have to do a little research.I'm not familiar enough with the people of this planet.It was colonized by humans, and the natives weren't too far off so I'm guessing she's got a fair bit of everything mixed in there."

"She's a regular mutt, this one," Rose cooed, giggling when Ana smiled adorably around the bottle."Is that what you are, sweetheart?"

He scoffed."Baby talk, Rose?Really?You are going to stunt her language development."

"I am not, am I, darling?" she said to Ana in the same high-pitched tone as the baby finished her bottle.

The Doctor sighed and held out his arms."Give her here, we'll have to do some scans in the med bay, make sure she's healthy, have the TARDIS mix her up some more of that formula.We'll have a better idea of her physiology and how to care for her after that."

Rose dutifully handed Ana over.The Doctor hoisted her up so that she was resting against his jumper."You might want to put her up on your shoulder with a cloth or something," Rose warned."When my cousins sucked down bottles as fast as she did, they always managed to sick up all over what I was wearing."

He scoffed once more."Rose, did you forget the part about not being human?I'm sure she'll be fine."

Rose held up her hands."All right. But I did warn you!"

The Doctor made a face at her and turned, walking towards the TARDIS.He barely made it ten feet before crying out in alarm and holding Ana out in front of him while the baby screeched happily at this new game.

"Rose!" he called, not bothering to turn around as he kept stomping towards the TARDIS."Can you please bring a towel with you to the med bay?" 

******

Rose sat in the corner of the medbay, grinning as the Doctor ran instrument after instrument over Ana and the baby gurgled and cooed.She kept reaching up to grab at the devices as if they were toys, thinking it a delightful game when the Doctor kept tugging them out of reach. 

"Menace," he muttered, still with a small smile on his face as he turned back to the monitors.Rose lifted Ana into her arms and sat in one of the wheeled chairs, watching in awe as she yawned deeply and curled up against her chest where she was breathing steadily within minutes. 

"How is she so calm?" Rose murmured."She doesn't cry when she's hungry, doesn't cry when she's tired.How are we supposed to know if she needs anything?"

"I'm looking at her brain scan now," the Doctor told her."Do you see this bit here?It's larger than a human's, and in similar species it's used as a way to almost read hormones and pheromones.Presuming her parents had it as well, they would have formed a _connection_ with her.It's not telepathic, not as such...it looks like they would have just had an intuitive sense of her needs based on hormonal output.She doesn't cry because she hasn't _had_ to cry."

"Oh humans would love something like that," she replied."What are we gonna do when we can't sense what she needs?"

The Doctor sighed."I should be able to once I'm familiar with her signals."

"What, seriously?"

"Yeah, got the nose for it."

"You're completely impossible, you know that?” 

The Doctor spun around in his chair armed with a witty retort that he suddenly found himself unable to deliver. His breath caught at the sight before him, Rose reclined on the chair with Ana curled up snugly on her chest.Rose had her cheek pressed against the baby's crown, eyes closed and a small smile on her face.

Rose was already a goner.And he seemed to be well on his way.

He shook off the feeling before Rose could catch him mooning at them."Why don't you lay her down somewhere?The TARDIS has probably set up a cot."

Rose looked almost disappointed as she glanced down at the tiny bundle in her arms."D'you need me for anything?"

As usual, he had to swallow down his first instinctual words, _I always need you_.Instead, he smiled softly."I'll need you to protect me from your mother's physical assault when we show up with a baby."

******

They waited until Ana had awoken, cheerful and smiling as they changed her nappy and dressed her in an adorable, TARDIS-provided twenty-first century outfit that would certainly melt Jackie's heart.Rose adjusted the tiny floral headband and cooed at the baby while the Doctor put a few last-minute items into a nondescript baby bag.

"Give her here," he commanded, lifting her ever-so-gently off the changing table and up onto his shoulder."Your mother is less likely to hit me if I've got a baby in my arms."

"You don't give my mum nearly enough credit," Rose told him as they made their way to the console room."Once we tell her that Ana's not actually _ours_..."

"Yeah, but it's the time between her thinking I impregnated you with an alien baby and when we get a chance to explain ourselves that I'm worried about.No matter that it's actually _impossible_ , your mum certainly won't care to listen."

"Really?It's impossible?Not that it matters," she rushed out the last part and glanced down at her trainers, trying to keep the disappointment out of her tone.

The Doctor hummed."Genetic engineering took the place of natural childbirth among my people ages ago.We were woven together, almost literally, in looms.Well, not anymore..."He glanced down at Ana, having shifted the infant into the crook of his arm while piloting the TARDIS one-handed."Just me now..."

Rose's heart seized at his melancholy tone.She wanted to cross the room, wrap him in a hug and offer a few comforting words, but before she could, he let out a broad grin at the wriggling baby."But you're going to be my buffer, aren't you?Jackie wouldn't dare incite violence in front of such a wee one."He flipped a couple of levers and sighed."Once I can get us there..."

Rose grinned as he attempted to pilot the TARDIS one-handed. "We need to get you one of those baby carriers.You know, the ones that you hook over your shoulders and strap her to your chest so you can have your hands free?"

The Doctor shot her a glare, and Rose had to stifle her giggles."Rose, I am the last of the Time Lords, known in the ancient writings of the Daleks as the Oncoming Storm.I was there when the Berlin Wall came down, the fall of Troy, the invention of the Internet...I will _not_ wear a bloody _papoose_!"

Rose was giggling now, Ana's little gurgles following soon after, and the Doctor's face once again stretched out into a grin.A little bubble of happiness swelled up in Rose's chest at the sweet moment, all three of them happy and content even facing down Tropical Storm Jackie.

Rose felt the TARDIS set down more gently than she expected, having spent the last several months bracing herself against shaky landings.She adjusted the bag on her shoulder and walked over to the console, lacing her fingers through the Doctor's free hand and giving it a comforting squeeze.

He took a breath in through his nose and met her gaze.She caught a brief glimpse of his stressed, anxious expression before it softened, turning almost tender as his blue eyes locked with hers.

"Bloody domestics," he murmured, leaning in to press a brief kiss to her forehead."Come on, let's get this over with."

"Yes, please," Rose said, tugging him out of the TARDIS with admirably minimal resistance on his end.She opened the door into the bright midday sun.It was warm but with a slight crispness to the air, and Rose guessed that the Doctor had landed them not far after they had last visited, just on the cusp of where summer turned into fall.She took a deep breath and led the way up the estate stairs, not letting go of the Doctor's free hand. Mercifully, they avoided running into anyone familiar as they made their way to number 48.

"You ready?" Rose asked him as they stood, side by side, in front of the door.She had the key in her hand, poised to slip it into the lock, but she glanced at the Doctor for confirmation.He blew out a breath but nodded.

"Mum...it's us!" Rose called out as she opened the door."Got...um...a surprise for ya!"

"Rose!" Jackie called from the kitchen."Oh, I'm so glad you're here!And so soon!That mad alien better be behaving himself!So what sort of surprise could you have brought me?"

Jackie's happy chatter cut off abruptly as she came into view.Her jaw dropped open at the sight before her, the Doctor cradling Ana in his arms and Rose with a baby bag slung casually over her shoulder.

"Mum, please, before you say anything..."

Rose didn't get another word out before Jackie's eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted dead away.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is posting so late in the day! I hope you all enjoy it anyway!
> 
> I’m going to try to post on Mondays, but life is hectic with a toddler so I may be a bit late occasionally. I apologize in advance if that happens!
> 
> TenRoseForeverandEver is a perfect beta so any mistakes are mine from adding on and ruining her hard work. 
> 
> Thank you so much for your lovely kudos and comments last chapter! They made my week!!!!

"Don't think I'm changing her nappy!"

"What are you on about, we just changed her before we left the TARDIS?"

"Not talking about the baby."

Jackie groaned as she opened her eyes before immediately slamming them shut once again, the light in the room like shards of glass through her already aching head. The press of a cool, damp cloth soothed the stabbing pain a bit, enough that she was able to open her eyes and see Rose staring at her.

"All right, mum?" she murmured, pressing the cloth to different places on her face.

"Oh, Rose, I had the most awful dream..."

Her daughter bit her lip and glanced behind her at the Doctor, who was indeed cradling a tiny, curly-haired baby in his arms. She leapt off the sofa and, despite the pounding in her head, let her anger overtake her.

"How _dare_ you impregnate my daughter!"

"Mum, just listen to me, it's not what you think!"

"Of course it's what I think!" Jackie shouted, pointing an accusing finger Rose. "All this time, you telling me 'Oh, we're not like that! We're just friends! Nothing to worry about!' and now you come home with a _baby_?! I just saw you last week! How did this even _happen_?"

"It is a _time machine_ ," the Doctor muttered.

"Oh, I'll _time machine_ you!" Jackie started towards him, fully intending on slapping the smug git straight in the face before Rose intercepted her as she shot the Doctor a glare.

"You’re not helping, Doctor. Mum, please, don't smack him when he's holding the baby! She's not even _ours_!"

"What are you on about, Rose?"

"I mean... yes, legally, she's ours. But she's not _ours-ours_. Blimey, this is complicated..."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Rose and I saved a planet a few months back and according to her mad parents, that was sufficient cause to name us as legal guardians to little Ana here. There, not so complicated, is it, little one?" He cooed at the baby, bouncing her in his arms a bit and causing a sweet little sound to escape her rosebud mouth.

"Oh, would you listen to that!" Jackie softened her voice, something about the happy baby sounds and the way the gorgeous little thing wiggled contentedly in the Doctor’s making her heart lift and she instantly felt lighter. After all, she had always wanted a grandchild but had abandoned all hope once Rose had taken off with the Doctor. Jackie knew her daughter would never look at another man the way she looked at him, especially after seeing the added tenderness shine in her eyes at the way the Doctor so naturally cradled the little child with a completely smitten, adoring look on his face. “Nothing better in the world than baby noises!” She turned to Rose with a wolfish grin. “Nothing sexier than a gorgeous man with a baby either, eh, Rose?”

"Mum!" Rose hissed, her cheeks flushing. The Doctor's head had snapped up as well, the tips of his ears turning pink. "Just... don't. Look, can we stay here a few days? Just to get our bearings?"

"Of course, sweetheart. Do you have a cot for her? Or do I need to get yours from your gran? Oh, that'll be fun explaining to her... Rose came back with a bleedin' _baby_ and not even a husband to show for it!" 

"She has a cot in the TARDIS, we can set it up in my room for now. Doctor, can you help me? Mum will mind her while we get our things together."

"Of course I will!" Jackie cooed, holding her arms out for the tiny little thing. 

"Rose, hold on just a second," the Doctor protested, hugging Ana a little closer to his chest. "I can't just go handing her over to just anyone! Does your mum have all of her shots?"

" _All of my shots you are lucky I don't shoot you_!" Jackie screeched, slapping his arm. 

"Ow! Not with the baby!"

"Well then stop saying stupid things!"

"I meant all of your vaccines! Have you had a tetanus booster? Measles? Whooping cough? Blimey, you need a flu shot!"

"Doctor, it's not even October yet," Rose started to soothe him. 

"And it takes six weeks for humans to build up the proper antibodies, Rose. Honestly, how do you survive with these weak little immune systems? What year is it, 2006? I've got the vaccine that perfectly matches this years' strain in the TARDIS. Ana and I will just pop to the med bay..."

"Doctor, settle down! Ana is fine with Mum. She's not going to get whooping cough or the flu or rabies. Besides, the TARDIS inoculates everyone who steps through her doors, yeah?"

The Doctor looked sheepish. "Well, er, Rose... that is ...I've never had an infant on board so I just don’t know how the TARDIS will handle that..."

"Just hand 'er over, Doctor," Jackie plucked the baby out of the Doctor's arms. "She's a pretty one, isn't she? Look at those eyes! And those curls! Oh, Rose, we're going to have to do some shopping. Bev’s granddaughter loves wearing tutus, they're all the rage apparently. Her name is Ana, you said? Well, Ana, you're going to need some tutus, aren't you, darling?"

"Rose, she is _not_ wearing a tutu!" the Doctor whispered furiously as Rose pushed him into the TARDIS.

*****

The Doctor was pleased with the efficiency of his ship. The portocrib and pram were stowed by the doorway, so all the Doctor and Rose took very little time in gathering the small array of items they had brought on board for Ana. He let Rose gather the few baby things that had migrated to the kitchen or the medbay while he synthesized a few containers of her formula in his laboratory. It was easy to do and barely took any time at all, which suited the Doctor just fine. Too much time alone with his thoughts could have him actually pondering their situation and giving in to his usual itchy feet. Surely this was all too domestic, too ordinary, too... _human_ for the last of the Time Lords.

He sighed. He'd long ago given in to the fact that Rose had him wrapped around her finger and he knew he'd give her anything she asked for. Even a baby.

A baby. On the TARDIS. There was no way that could end well.

But, then, he wondered at the fact that the only itch in his feet was to get back to Rose and Ana as quickly as possible.

He gathered the containers once they’d finished synthesizing and tried not to appear in too much of a hurry as he made his way back to the console room. Rose was already there with a small satchel and a cloth grocery sack filled with biscuits and tea from the kitchens.

He smirked. "Stealing food?"

She grinned back. "What can I say? You know mum is going to make you move the TARDIS to the alley behind the flats and if you think I'm going into that diseased rat hole for the best biscuits in the universe, you are out of your mind."

"Out of my mind? You’re just realizing this now?" 

"Known it for a while actually," she teased, sauntering over to meet him partway to the door.

"And yet, you still stay with me," he murmured as she came to stand in front of him. His hearts started hammering in his chest, as was the norm whenever Rose got too close to him. He tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and couldn't keep his fingers from ghosting down her cheek. "Rose Tyler. Tending to stray Time Lords and babies alike."

"Better watch out, next time I'm bringing home a puppy."

The Doctor chuckled and wrapped an arm around her waist. "By 'puppy' you better mean 'goldfish'."

"Maybe a kitten too," she grinned, her tongue tucked adorably between her teeth. His hearts flip-flopped and it was suddenly very, _very_ warm inside his ship. He was pondering the merits of leaning in and kissing that blasted smile off her face when a loud pounding at the door caused Rose to turn away from him and glare at the offending noise.

"Rose, get out here! I need the Doctor to move this bloody box! Bev and Mo are coming over and I don't want to have to answer their questions about the big blue thing right outside the building!"

"Bev and Mo?" Rose shouted back to her, pulling away from the Doctor, charging over to the doors, and yanking them open. "Are you joking?"

"Well they want to meet the baby!" Jackie was standing outside the door with Ana propped up on her shoulder. The baby was glancing around wide-eyed, completely entranced with the outside world and the Doctor smiled a bit at her natural curiosity.

"She's not even ours, Mum! How are we going to explain it to them?"

"Oh don't worry I already gave them a story," Jackie said, waving her free hand casually. "Said that she's the Doctor's niece and you two got custody of her after her parents were in an accident. Simple. They want to bring her presents too, so tell your bloody alien husband to get a move on!"

"Oh, for the love of..." the Doctor muttered, feeling the dull thud in his head return full-force. 

"We aren't married!"

“That _she_ knows,” he said in a low enough voice that Jackie didn’t hear. Rose, however, did, and he snapped his mouth shut at her glare.

"Come on. You live together, travel together, and now you're raising a baby together. You're at least a _little bit_ married."

"She has a point, Rose," the Doctor hated to admit, but he smiled at his lovely little human in reassurance.

"There, see?" Jackie said. "Come on up, Rose, I need your help straightening the place. Don't you dare think about showing up a year from now, mister! Better not miss a year of your own daughter's life!"

"She's _not his daughter_!" Rose hissed, sending an apologetic look over her shoulder as she followed her mother out of the TARDIS. "It's just in one ear and out the other. Don't know why I even bother."

The Doctor watched Rose until the doors shut completely behind her. Then, he turned back to his controls, pleading silently with his ship for a smooth, proper relocation

*******

His ship didn't fail him, and barely any time had passed after he had moved the TARDIS into the dark, dank alley behind the flats. The idea of dragging Ana and Rose through the filth there was enough to make him shudder. They would probably catch hepatitis just from breathing the air. He resigned himself to spending a few nights on Jackie's sofa as he carried several pieces of baby equipment up the stairs and let himself into the familiar flat.

Somehow, in the ten minutes he had been gone, more humans had decided to take up residence there.

"Um..." he began.

"Oh, and here he is!" Jackie leapt up from the sofa to drag him more fully into the flat. "All the neighbors heard about you and Rose and Ana so they decided to pop in for a visit!"

Everyone waved cheerily, and the Doctor managed a half-hearted hand waggle in return. He sought out Rose, who was feeding Ana in one of the armchairs. She shrugged apologetically before popping the now-empty bottle out of Ana's mouth and hoisting her up onto her shoulder, where a burp cloth was conveniently draped. 

His hearts immediately softened. Rose was taking everything so well. Her life had just been turned in a thousand different directions and yet she was adapting beautifully. Her natural instincts were spot on, even with an alien child, and something stirred deep within him as he watched her coo and goo happily after Ana let out a mighty belch and left a stream of spit-up on her shoulder.

"Here ya go, Dan, she should be nice and happy for you now. I'm just going to go have a chat with the Doctor. We'll just be a moment!" She handed Ana off to a young man the Doctor had never met, but bustled him into her bedroom before he could voice any protests.

"Do you even know him, Rose? Does he--"

"Yes, Doctor, he's had all his shots. Listen, I'm sorry about all this," she said as soon as the door had clicked shut behind them. "One of mum's friends saw her outside with the baby and word spread around like wildfire. All of a sudden everyone was knocking on the door wanting to see her."

"Rose, it's fine..."

She shot him an incredulous look. 

"Okay, well, it's not like they'll be here forever. The baby will have to knock off in a few hours, and then they'll leave, right?" The Doctor began to get nervous as the expression on Rose's face didn't change. " _Right_?"

Rose sighed and rubbed her eyes. "You've never been to a Jackie Tyler party..."

*******

As it turned out, the residents of the Powell Estate combined with cousins Bev and Mo and a few bottles of fruity alcoholic beverages, could turn an impromptu baby shower into an hours-long soiree. The pain that had been building behind the Doctor’s eyes steadily built into a full-blown headache by the time the last guest stumbled out of the apartment, leaving only Rose's mother and cousins to attend to.

Cousin Bev was holding Ana and talking a mile a minute which the Doctor was quickly learning was a Prentice family trait. "Such a good baby, Rose, don't think I've heard a cry out of her all day. And so pretty! The blue eyes must run in his family."

"Guess so," Rose replied weakly.

"Best thing though, don't pick her up if she's fussing. She'll get spoiled and will want to be held all the time. Then where will you be? Babies know what they can get away with!"

"Actually, if a baby aged six months or less is crying and they need to be held, you hold them," the Doctor gritted out. "If a child's emotional needs aren't met even this early on, they can develop severe attachment disorders."

"Oh, listen to him," Bev dismissed with a flick of her wrist. "Never even held a baby before this one, I'll wager. Toxic bachelor, until he found our Rose, eh?"

The Doctor felt his knuckles curl into fists. Now was not the time to share his entire past with Rose and her family. Rose, who had been sitting close to him on the sofa and could no doubt feel how tense he was, placed a comforting hand on his bicep, and her familiar touch helped calm his frustrations a bit.

"Can I throw her into a supernova?" he murmured in Rose's ear.

Rose barked out a laugh, quickly covering it up with a cough when the three women stopped mid-chatter to stare at her. "Sorry, must have a tickle. You know, the Doctor knows a lot about babies, Bev. Probably more than I do. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a doctorate buried in his attic somewhere." She beamed at him, and he couldn't help but relax at her encouraging words and familiar smile.

"But you, Rose!" cousin Mo cried dramatically. "Barely twenty and saddled with a husband and a baby already!"

Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh, my, God, he's _not_ my husband!" 

The Doctor tried not to wince as her words tugged at his hearts more than he expected them to.

"Oh, close enough," Bev replied.

"At least she snagged herself a Doctor," Mo piped up. "He'll be able to take care of her."

"Oi!" the Doctor piped up before Rose could even open her mouth. He stood up from his spot on the sofa and hoped he made an imposing, intimidating figure standing over the mad harpies. "Rose is perfectly capable of taking care of herself, thanks. She learned from the best one around how to survive without a man to take care of her! Now, I think I should take Ana for her bath and bedtime story, wouldn’t want her staying up too late. Go on, give her here!"

Stunned, Bev held her out towards him. The Doctor snatched the baby and stormed off towards Rose's bedroom. He gazed down at the teeny, wriggling bundle in his arms and he felt some of the stress melt away. He pressed his cheek to hers, hoping the skin to skin contact would give him sense of what she needed. He closed his eyes and reached out, all of his receptors on high alert, but he felt... nothing. Nothing but contentment. Ana felt safe and happy and... _loved_.

She reached up and tugged at his ears, and the Doctor chuckled. He pulled back and looked into her clear blue eyes, saw her wide gummy smile and felt something give in his chest.

"You are, little one," he murmured, placing her gently onto Rose's bed and gathering the supplies for a quick nappy change. "Barely known you a day. Then, you're not the only girl I've fallen for in less than a day. Seem to be developing a pattern in my old age."

Ana cooed and waved her hands in response. "Yeah, pretty much sums it up there.” He finished cleaning her up and changed her into a sweet little sleeper from the baby bag before stretching out alongside her on the bed. “Now, you need a rest. At least, I think you need a rest. Blimey, how do I figure out how to do this 'dad' thing again? It's been centuries. They were your size once. But... gone now." He pushed a curl off her forehead and smiled as she let out a huge yawn that was almost comical in proportion to her tiny little face. He could sense the sudden accompanying burst of melatonin and knew it wouldn’t be long until she was asleep. He sang her a lullaby from him childhood in his lilting, musical native tongue and it seemed to only take a matter of moments before Ana rolled slightly onto her side, closed her eyes, and was breathing even and deep.

"Tell me about your kids."

He glanced up to see Rose leaning in the doorway, smiling gently at him. "How much did you hear?"

"Last couple things. Your voice is lovely," she replied, coming over and lying down on the other side of the sleeping baby. "I'm sorry about your family."

"Not your fault," he told her, rolling onto his side and blowing out a breath. "What can I say? Time Lords sent their children at 8 years old to look into all of time and space. Didn't do much for their innocence. They grew up. Too fast. Had to, really." He reached over and laced his fingers with Rose's. "You humans do one or two things right, keeping your kids close is one of them."

"Twenty years and I still end up back at mum's place," Rose murmured, squeezing his hand and yawning. "With my crazy family."

"Oh, they're not so bad."

Rose raised an eyebrow and he chuckled. 

"All right, they are that bad."

Rose laughed but quieted quickly as Ana stirred, snuffling softly in her sleep before settling down almost immediately afterwards.

"I can't believe they gave her to us," Rose whispered, awe in her voice. "They trust us to keep her safe, to raise her up right."

"Rose, remember what I said...”

“I know,” she replied. “If there’s somewhere, something better out there for her we have to be able to let her go.”

“Our life isn’t exactly the safest for a baby.”

“Oh, I dunno,” Rose said, giving him that tongue-tipped grin he simultaneously loved and hated. “I reckon she’s safest wherever you are. I know I am.”

The Doctor stared at the lovely blonde human, the one whose eyes held such trust in him. Trust that he hadn’t earned, that he didn’t deserve, but was given unconditionally. His hearts clenched as he reached a hand to cup Rose’s cheek, stroking his thumb tenderly over her cheekbone as she closed her eyes at his touch. 

“You’re completely mad,” he murmured.

“You love it.” Rose let out a long, drawn out yawn. “Blimey, it’s been a day, hasn’t it? Mind if I knock off for a few hours?”

“Humans and your need for sleep,” he replied affectionately. “Go on, have your lovely dreams.”

“Should we put the baby in the cot?”

“Nah, I won’t be sleeping tonight. I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“Kay,” Rose murmured, her eyes already drooping. “G’night, Doctor.”

“Night, Rose,” he replied softly, seeing that her breaths were already turning deep and even.

He wasn't sure how long he lay there, wishing that he had memories like this with his own family. When his eyes started to feel unexpectedly heavy, he shifted the still sleeping Ana from the bed onto his chest where she would be safe from the dangers of sharing a bed with a human.

He, however, wasn’t safe at all. Rose scooted closer to him as soon as the baby had been shifted and snuggled into his side. He wrapped an arm around her, and she dropped off once again. That very moment of having everything important in the universe nestled safe in his arms gave him enough peace of mind to drift off for a kip of his own.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ana meets Jack, and an old friend makes an appearance towards the end!
> 
> Sorry this is a day overdue, I’m abhorrently late in getting changes to TenRoseForeverandEver, who again is a brilliant and perfect beta AND author. If you haven’t checked her out, I HIGHLY recommend doing so now!
> 
> All of you delightful comments and kudos give me LIFE!!!!! You’re all amazing!

Rose awoke the following morning and found herself in one of her favorite places in the entire universe. She was nestled against the Doctor’s chest, his one arm fitted snugly around her while his opposite hand rested on Ana’s back. The Doctor was sound asleep, but Ana’s wide blue eyes were awake, alert, and considering Rose intensely. Rose grinned at the baby and was instantly rewarded with a sweet smile in return. Ana seemed perfectly content and comfortable resting on the Doctor’s chest, something Rose could definitely relate to.

“Don’t blame you for being comfy there, sweetheart. ‘S my favorite spot too,” Rose whispered, reaching up to brush a dark curl out of Ana’s eyes. The movement was just enough to rouse the Doctor, his own blue eyes opening slowly as he glanced around the room. When his gaze fell on Rose and he saw she was awake, he relaxed a bit gave her a sweet, sleepy smile.

“Mornin’,” he croaked. “Blimey, what time is it?”

“Nearly seven,” Rose replied. “How long did you sleep?”

“Six hours,” he murmured. “Huh. Thought I was just going to kip. Guess being around so many humans is rubbing off on me.”

“Or my nutty family wore you out.” The Doctor chuckled and tugged her closer. “How did the baby do last night? I didn’t hear her.”

“She slept all night, barely made a peep...” He pressed his cheek against her curls and was quiet for a moment. “Hungry though.”

“That makes two of us,” Rose cooed. “Let’s go see what Mum has in while we make her a bottle... then...” She trailed off, not entirely sure how to present her next thought.

“Then...?”

“We really ought to go pick up Jack,” she said.

“Ah.”

“I feel guilty, keeping this huge thing all to ourselves. He deserves to know, don’t you think?”

The Doctor sighed and his grip on Rose tightened. “Yeah. You’re right. I’ll go get him after breakfast, you can stay here with Ana and your mum.”

Rose sat up at that bit of news as her heart began to race in panic. “You must be joking if you think I’m staying behind!”

“The planet is adults-only, Rose. They won’t let us land if there’s a child on board.”

“What, seriously? They’d be able to tell, even if we’re inside the TARDIS?”

He sighed, reaching up to thread his fingers into her sleep-tousled hair. “Possibly. And I’m not willing to take the risk with the two of you,” he said, bringing her forehead close to press against his. “I’ll be five minutes, Rose, I _promise_.”

“Last time you said something like that it was twelve months,” she muttered, her words softened by the small smile she gave him.

“Last time we had to stop the planet from getting nuked.”

“Oh, right. Silly me.” Rose leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on his nose. “I want you and Jack back in one piece, yeah? And _today_.”

“Yes, dear,” he muttered before Ana once again made her hungry presence known and the little trio left their sweet cocoon to start the day. 

******

The Doctor said his goodbyes to Rose and Ana barely an hour later. He kissed the baby on the forehead and pulled Rose to him, marveling at the ease he now felt touching her. They had always been tactile, holding hands and hugging from early on in their friendship, but something had noticeably shifted just over the last 24 hours. The very literal ache in his hearts had become nearly unbearable if he wasn’t touching her. Normally, he would have been able to dampen the feeling but now it was nearly impossible. Maybe it was his compounding guilt about upending her entire existence once again, or perhaps seeing her with Ana was simply stirring something primal within him, but either way, he desperately wanted her within hugging distance at all times. 

“Five minutes,” he murmured against her hair before placing a kiss to the crown of her head. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

Rose pulled back a bit and gazed up at him, smiling. He brought his forehead to touch hers and returned her soft smile. “I’m holding you to that, mister. I’ll even make you banana bread if you beat my mum back from the shops.”

He chuckled. “You, Rose Tyler, have a deal.” He squeezed her gently before turning away and exiting the flat, giving her a small wave just before shutting the door behind him. He took in a deep breath, steeling his resolve as he made his way into the alleyway behind the building. He unlocked the TARDIS quickly and instantly input coordinates to the swanky, adults-only 55th century resort where they’d left Jack the day before. 

_Blimey_ , he thought. Had it really been yesterday when they’d received the broadcast that he now knew had been beckoning them back to take charge of Ana? It simultaneously felt like both mere seconds and years ago at this point, despite his generally perfect time sense. The three companions had been hesitant about how they should respond, since the broadcast had specifically asked for the Doctor and Rose Tyler, with no mention of Jack, but the good-natured ex-Time Agent had agreeably offered to take a long weekend so they could handle the issue.

The Doctor landed the TARDIS exactly 72 hours after they had dropped Jack off, despite the fact that it had only been a bit over a day for himself and Rose. He exited the ship and scanned the opulent lobby for their friend and companion.

“Doc!” The familiar voice called out jovially. “Right on time for once!”

“Jack,” he greeted, turning towards the voice to see the handsome man beaming at him. “Good trip?”

“One of the best!” He told the Doctor, clapping him on the shoulder affectionately. “I’ll spare you the salacious details. Where’s Rosie, though? She _loves_ salacious details!”

The Doctor hesitated in response, and in that split-second all of the color seemed to drain from Jack’s face. “Where’s Rose, Doctor? What happened?”

“She’s fine,” he hurriedly told him, turning away and walking back towards the TARDIS. “Things have just...changed a bit since we last saw you.”

Jack narrowed his eyes and looked as if he was to attack him with the typical thousand questions a statement like this would provoke. Before Jack could start the barrage, the Doctor unlocked the door to the TARDIS and allowed Jack to enter before him. The Doctor watched as Jack glanced around the empty console room. He turned back to glare angrily at the Doctor.

“What did you do, Doctor? Where is she?”

“Oh, don’t give me that, Harkness,” he snapped back, setting the coordinates and pleading with his magnificent ship to get them back at the time he had promised. “What makes you think I did anything?”

“Because despite the fact that you’re a genius, 99 percent of the time you’re also a right bloody idiot when it comes to her.”

“Oi!” The Doctor protested as he sent them careening into the Vortex. “Rose is fine, she’s home at her mother’s flat and she’s waiting for us to arrive. She couldn’t come with me this time.”

Jack glared at him, his handsome face belying his feelings on the subject. “Why not? Is she hurt? Sick?” The Doctor felt the time ship settle into Jackie’s flat once again, ignoring Jack’s incessant questioning as he confirmed the coordinates were perfect. 

_Five minutes on the dot_ , he sent his gratitude to his beautiful ship. _Thanks, old girl._

He hopped down from the console, knowing Jack would follow him even as he angrily hurtled questions about Rose’s well-being after him. He turned back to Jack before opening the TARDIS door and held up the sonic in what he hoped was a non-threatening manner.

“Hands,” he ordered.

“I beg your pardon?” Jack replied, obviously taken aback at the command.

“I need to sanitize your hands before you go out there. Rassilon only knows where those things were this weekend.”

Jack glared at the Doctor suspiciously but held his hands out so the Doctor could shine the blue light over his skin. “I thought you said Rose wasn’t sick.”

“She’s not... she’s ...oh, bloody hell, just look for yourself...” He unlocked the door and stood off to the side so Jack could move into the doorway. 

Jack stopped dead in his tracks as soon as Rose and Ana came into view. He didn’t move past the TARDIS threshold even as Rose smiled widely at their friend. “Hi, Jack... we’ve got someone we’d like you to meet...”

He gaped at Rose and down at Ana, the tiny baby’s face erupting in delighted smiles when she saw Jack gazing at her. He looked between Rose, Ana, and the Doctor, his eyes wide with shock and his mouth agape, and it took him several moments before he was able to speak.

“All right. What the _hell_ did I miss?”

******

They were quick to catch Jack up on the situation, and he nodded in understanding as the Doctor told him that he and Rose were now Ana’s legal guardians. They explained that it had only been a bit over a day since they dropped him off, since Rose hadn’t wanted to keep something like this from him any longer than necessary.

He sat back in the couch, covering his face with his hands and blowing out a long breath.

“Wow... this is... Wow.”

“I know, it’s a lot to take in,” Rose said, reaching out to place her free hand on his arm. “We understand if it’s... too much right now. I know you didn’t exactly sign up for _this_ when you decided to travel with us.”

Jack turned to Rose and smiled reassuringly. “I knew you two were trying to get rid of me. Jeez, all you had to do was put a sock on the door. You didn’t need to adopt an alien baby,” he teased gently. “Although, she _is_ cute.” He sat up straight and held out his arms towards Rose. “May I?”

“Of course, Jack! You can have her whenever you want!” she told him, handing Ana over without hesitation. 

“Whenever he wants?” the Doctor protested. “Rose, we can’t give him that kind of free rein! Look, she’s flirting with him already!”

“She’s a baby! She flirts with everyone!” Rose countered. 

“Don’t be jealous just because she likes me best, Doc,” Jack teased as he settled Ana expertly into the crook of his elbow. The tender look on his handsome face was enough to make a beauteous grin spread across Rose’s face and the Doctor’s resolve wavered.

“Hey there, gorgeous,” Jack cooed to the baby. “I’m your uncle Jack. Nice to meet you.”

Ana seemed enraptured with the new man in her life. She was staring at him intently, her tiny face the picture of concentration, and the three adults in the room couldn’t help but chuckle at the intensity in her gaze. It didn’t take long for the concentration to turn into complete delight, and the sweet, sustained giggle that erupted from her tiny rosebud mouth was a sound that the Doctor and Rose hadn’t heard from her before that moment.

“Was that... did she _laugh_?” Rose asked in disbelief.

“I think she did!” Jack said, his face practically aglow as he stared down at her. “You love your uncle Jack, don’t you?”

Ana laughed again, reaching up to try and grab Jack’s face with her tiny, flailing hands. “It’s not just your pretty face, you know. I think she likes your voice too,” Rose told him.

“Well, what’s not to like?” he replied smugly. 

The Doctor interrupted the little moment between Jack and Ana with a tiny twinge of guilt. “We’re going to stay here at Jackie’s, just for a little while. That all right?”

“Oh, yeah. I’m sure there’s plenty of trouble we could get into on 21st century Earth, eh, Rosie?” Jack teased.

“You will do your best to keep _out_ of trouble, Captain,” the Doctor admonished. “We’re trying to keep a low profile. The last thing we want to do is draw attention to an alien baby in this century.”

Jack stared at the Doctor and blinked a few times, before turning back to the baby in his arms with a brilliant grin, one that Ana instantly returned. “You’re going to be my Wing-Girl, little cutie, huh?”

The Doctor rolled his eyes. Jack had fallen under Ana’s spell just the same as the rest of them. Who could blame him?

“Rose? Doctor?” Jackie’s voice floated in from the doorway. “Could one of you give me a hand with this shopping?”

The Doctor turned to Rose with a wide, hopeful grin. “Rose Tyler, I believe you owe me some banana bread.”

******

Unsurprisingly, Jackie Tyler and Jack Harkness took to one another like two drops of mercury. He flirted shamelessly, and Jackie immediately fell for his charms. She doted on him while he held Ana, bringing him tea and biscuits as they played happily with the baby and coaxed more giggles out of her. Rose, who never backed down from a bet, was busying herself in the kitchen. The Doctor had discovered several months back and completely by accident that Rose’s banana bread was the best baked good in six galaxies. Coincidentally, it was around then that Rose decided to only make it for him on special occasions lest he become spoiled.

He leaned against the wall, watching Rose gather the ingredients and listening to Jackie and Jack play with Ana in the next room. The scene was surprisingly domestic, something he had vowed off early on in his existence. His first go-round at family hadn’t gone particularly well, and losing Susan had turned him off to the whole idea for centuries. So it came as a shock to realize being a part of this day to day existence was... comfortable. It hardly even made him want to pack himself and Rose into the TARDIS and fly thousands of light years away.

At least... not _permanently._

“If you’re just going to stand there staring, you may as well give me a hand,” Rose teased, glancing back at him with a bright smile. “The faster we get the batter together, the faster it gets in the oven.”

“Huh. Imagine that,” he replied with a touch of teasing sarcasm and came to stand next to her, shrugging off his jacket and draping it on the back of a chair. “I am your humble assistant, Rose Tyler... use me.”

“Don’t tempt me,” she said, sending him a wink that set his hearts racing. She handed him a folded apron and laughed when he wrinkled his nose. “It’s so you don’t ruin your clothes. Don’t worry, mum has a whole drawer full. We did loads of baking when I was growing up and I always made a mess of myself.”

“I can picture that. Jeopardy-friendly, you are,” he told her, tweaking her nose affectionately before shaking out the apron and dropping it over his head. He turned towards Rose for direction, but before he could get the words out her eyes went wide and she burst into peals of hysterical laughter.

“What?” Following Rose’s tear-filled gaze, he glanced down at the apron he had just put on and felt the tips of his ears go hot. Printed on the fabric was an image of a headless, muscular, and completely _nude_ Roman statue that just happened to line up nearly perfectly with his torso. “Oh, Jackie Tyler _would_ have one of these aprons, wouldn’t she?”

Rose laughed harder, now gripping onto the counter for support and the Doctor couldn’t stop his answering grin. Her happiness was completely infectious. “So... I hope actual size may vary, eh?”

The Doctor looked down once more and noticed how small the statue’s genitals were portrayed and scoffed. “Please. Time Lord, me. _Much_ more impressive.”

Rose’s laughter trailed off, but her smile remained and turned almost predatory. She took a step towards him and smoothed her hands up his chest. “That so?”

He swallowed, the temperature in the room suddenly spiking enough to make him wish for once that he wasn’t wearing a wool jumper. “Oh, yes. You know, there was a reason that the Romans made their statues with such small genitalia.”

“Was there?” Rose’s voice had dropped an octave and his hearts were racing. His hands went around her waist seemingly of their own accord and he pulled her flush against him.

“Different standards of male beauty,” he murmured, his voice also taking on a husky quality. He noted Rose’s eyelids had lowered as she gazed up at him through her lashes. “Small penises were considered far more manly. It allowed them to remain focused and logical...”

“Hmmm,” Rose murmured, the hands on his chest sliding up into his hair as she applied a gently pressure, lowering his head towards hers. “What a fascinating history lesson, Doctor.”

His own eyes had shut at the sensation of her fingers against his scalp and he felt powerless against the pull of his head to hers. His hearts were racing in anticipation. After _months_ of being completely gone for this fantastic, ephemeral, brilliant human, he finally could entertain the idea that she wanted the old, broken soldier that he had become. For the moment, he wouldn’t question it. He prepared for the feel of pillow-soft lips on his when Rose suddenly jumped backwards out of his arms as the kitchen door slammed against the wall with a loud crash.

“Rose! Doctor! Jack and I couldn’t find a single toy in that baby bag. We really ought to head down to the shops and get her a few things, so she doesn’t get bored, don’t you think?” Jackie glanced between the Doctor and Rose, who were standing a few feet apart now, Rose busying herself by mashing bananas with a fork, her cheeks still tinged an attractive shade of pink. She looked so adorably flushed that he had to make a conscious effort not to pull her back into his arms, Jackie’s presence be damned. “And what are you two getting up to in here?”

“Just making banana bread,” Rose answered nonchalantly. “So... shopping you said?”

“Yeah. The guests yesterday really only brought clothes and nappies. Thought we could all go, might be a fun little outing,” Jackie continued. “Oh, Doctor, you have to _sift_ the flour, not dump it all in at once. Here, let me...”

The Doctor sighed as Jackie insinuated herself between him and Rose and took over the mixing, chatting happily about the various toys she had seen in different shop windows. Rose glanced over at him with an apologetic look on her face and he offered what he hoped was a reassuring smile in return. Now that Jackie had broken the spell over their moment and he was more clear-headed, all of the reasons not to give in and snog Rose to within an inch of her life had come rushing back into his brain. Especially now that they had Ana to think about, he had to keep a handle on his emotions and desires, lest Rose decide he was no longer worth her time and go live her own life with Ana.

He tamped down the flash of panic thoughts like that gave him and decided that borderline-platonic touches would have to suffice. He removed the offending apron and exited the kitchen to see how Jack and Ana were getting on. He couldn’t help but grin at the sight of the tiny baby lying on a blanket on the floor, giggling delightedly at Jack as he dove in and pretended to gobble up her belly.

“You’re very good with her,” he noted as he sat on the floor next to the former Time Agent.

“I was the oldest cousin. De facto babysitter for a while too. Glad to see I’ve still got the magic baby touch.” He turned to the Doctor with a seemingly concerned expression on his face. “How are _you_ handling all this?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he groused, tickling Ana’s toes and making her squeal happily.

“It’s supposed to mean exactly what it sounds like. All this,” he gestured around the flat and at the wriggling baby in front of them. “... it’s not exactly your scene, is it?”

“I didn’t think it was either,” he murmured as he gazed at Ana and returned her wide smile. “But, as it turns out... I think I’m enjoying the scene more than I thought I would.”

“So... you’re good?”

Rather than feel annoyed at his friend’s questioning, as was generally his norm, he felt a little thrill of warmth in his chest at his concern. Jack was worried about him, and surely worried about Rose in turn. He gave the man a smile before replying. “Thanks for your concern. But, yeah, I’m good.”

Jack gave the Doctor a grin and looked like he wanted to say more but a knock on the door interrupted him. “Doctor, could you get that?” Rose called from the kitchen. “Mum and I have batter-hands!”

The Doctor rolled his eyes and scooped Ana up into his arms. “They’re probably here to see you anyway, little one,” he told her. “Come along, let’s go answer the door and see what fresh Hell awaits us today.”

Jack chuckled from behind him and the Doctor grinned back at him. The expression was still on his face when he got to the door, flicked the lock, and pulled it open.

The Doctor was fairly certain the last thing Mickey Smith expected to see inside Jackie’s flat was him, beaming and holding a tiny baby girl in his arms.

_Well_ , he thought to himself with a sigh. _I guess we’re doing this now_.

“Doctor, Ana is due to be fed again soon I’d wager, do you mind making her a bottle?” Rose had come out of the kitchen, clad in her ruffled floral apron and smudged in flour, but stopped in her tracks next to the Doctor when she saw who was standing in the doorway. “Oh! Mickey! Listen, I know what you must be thinking. I can explain...” 

Mickey’s eyes went wide and he started sputtering, pointing between the Doctor and Rose without forming actual words. The Doctor shifted Ana up to his shoulder and could sense the leptin beginning to work its way through her system, signaling that she would be feeling hunger pangs very soon. He didn’t have time to entertain Mickey-the-Idiot’s wordless dribble. He was about to shut the door in Mickey’s face before the other man finally found his voice.

_“I knew it!”_


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor...well, he’s the Doctor and he’s an idiot sometimes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TenRoseForeverandEver is the reason this fic even comes close to making sense and you all should worship at her feet.
> 
> Enjoy!

The Doctor looked over at Rose and saw her brow furrowed in concern at her stupid ex-boyfriend, who was standing in the hallway and practically fuming as his gaze flicked from the baby in the Doctor’s arms, to Rose, to him, and back again. 

“I bloody _knew it_!” Mickey reiterated.

The Doctor rolled his eyes before reaching out his free hand to fist into Mickey’s t-shirt and tug him into the flat. “Best you come inside then, Rickey. We’ve got some things to tell you.”

“Too right you do!” he hissed as the Doctor shut the door behind him. “All this time, you kept telling me ‘Oh, we’re not like that! We’re just friends! Just traveling together!’” His eyes locked onto the Doctor again. “What, did you drug her with your alien sex pollen?”

“Alien sex pollen?” The Doctor scoffed. “Really?”

“Oh, yeah. I watch the telly. I know how you lot work!” 

“He didn’t use any alien sex pollen on me, Mickey,” Rose wiped her flour-covered hands on her apron. “Give the baby here, Doctor, I’ll have mum feed her.”

The Doctor acquiesced, passing Ana to Rose and watched her disappear back into the kitchen. Mickey attempted to direct a sort-of “death glare” at him, but the only thing he accomplished was looking a bit constipated.

“Would you mind not looking at me like that?” the Doctor groused.

“Like what?”

“Like you’re thirty seconds away from needing a milk-and-molasses enema.”

Mickey’s expression turned puzzled and he looked like he wanted to ask what the Doctor was on about when Rose emerged from the kitchen, sans baby and apron, drying her hands on a dish towel before gesturing to the sofa. “Why don’t we sit down, yeah?”

“Yeah, good idea,” Mickey told her. They moved the short distance into the living room, and Jack immediately rose up from where he had been seated on the floor with a massive grin on his face.

“Well if it isn’t Mickey Mouse!” Jack exclaimed, shaking Mickey’s hand emphatically, and clapping him on the shoulder. “I assume you’ve met our newest addition? Isn’t she gorgeous?” His glance slid over to Rose and he wagged his eyebrows. “Takes after her Uncle Jack!”

“Not remotely helping, Jack,” the Doctor muttered as Jack continued to grin, unrepentant. The Doctor opted to stand, as seating was limited, while each human took one of the seats around the coffee table.

“So if you deny that it was alien sex pollen, then how did this even _happen_?” Mickey sputtered out before anyone else could speak.

Jack’s smile turned devilish. “Well, Mickey, when a man and a woman fall in love... or just get really, _really_ drunk...”

“Never mind, I don’t want to know!”

“Mickey, her parents died in an accident,” Rose explained calmly. “We never met them, but the Doctor came up with a vaccine for their village a few months back. About ten years later in their timeline, the orphanage sent us a transmission and we found out they’d named us as her guardians. We’re not... _together_.”

“...yet ...,” Jackie put in as she entered the room with Ana, who was sucking down her bottle and considering Jackie intensely. Jackie took the open seat next to Rose on the sofa, cooing softly at the baby and indifferent to Rose’s face turning a bright shade of red next to her.

“Mum!”

“Oh, come on. Don’t think I didn’t notice you slept in the same room last night!”

Mickey’s eyes snapped up towards them and Rose groaned. “In case the baby needed anything! And don’t _you_ give me that look, Mickey Smith. Why would it matter to you anyway? Aren’t you still seeing Tricia Delaney?”

Mickey huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back in the armchair. “We’re not talking about me here, Rose.”

“So, you can chase after whatever bint in a skirt tickles your fancy, but heaven forbid Rose even sneeze in another man’s general direction?” the Doctor challenged with a scoff. “Classic stuff, Rickey. Top notch.”

“Oi! You two need to button it!” Rose stood up suddenly, the volume of her voice surprising everyone, including Ana. The tiny baby startled in Jackie’s arms, her eyes wide, and the Doctor could sense her acute distress a split second before she started wailing.

His hearts started racing in panic and he made a beeline for Jackie, scooping up the baby without preamble. “Oh, no, sweetheart,” he murmured as he held her against his chest. “You’re all right, love, don’t cry. Did that mean old Rickey scare you?”

“Wasn’t me! Rose was the one who shouted!”

“Because you’re being a blithering moron!”

“Would you two just stop?” Rose scolded them, but in a softer tone. She was standing in front of the Doctor and rubbing soothing circles on Ana’s back. “I’m sorry for shouting, little one,” she told the baby softly before turning back to her ex. “Mickey, I swear, this all only happened a day ago.”

“Well, how was I supposed to know that?” Mickey told her. “All I saw was the TARDIS sitting in the alley behind the flats when I was taking out the garbage this morning. So, I think, I’ll come say hello and spend some time with my favorite girl... then I find you playing house with Big Ears over here!

“I’m sorry, Mickey,” Rose told him sincerely. “We would have told you eventually, honest. But we’re still trying to get our bearings here too.”

Mickey’s gaze softened as Ana’s sobs turned into quiet snuffles. “I didn’t even think of that, Rose. I’m sorry. Your head must be going in twenty different directions.” He stood up and pulled Rose into a short hug, and the Doctor tried to ignore the hot flash of jealousy that rushed through him by focusing on the tiny baby snuggling into his jumper, the pheromones that accompanied her stress and fear now almost undetectable.

“Thanks, Micks,” Rose murmured before pulling back.

“And, hey, if you need any help with her... you can always ask. She’s kinda cute, I guess.” He leaned in and tried to catch Ana’s gaze. “Hey there. Looks like you’re gonna be hanging around for a little while, eh?”

“A few more days, max,” Rose told him. 

“Seriously?” Mickey gaped at her. “You’re not staying?”

“Why would we? The TARDIS has everything she needs and can take us anywhere we need her to go.”

“Jackie! You’re going to let them take your granddaughter gallivanting all over the universe?”

“Technically not her granddaughter,” the Doctor muttered.

“No use trying to stop them,” Jackie crossed her arms over her chest. “God only knows how things would go if I tried!”

“And what about Captain Cheesecake over there?” Mickey gestured over to Jack who was watching the scene quietly. 

“I’d like to see them try to get rid of me,” Jack scoffed before his voice dropped into insipid baby babble. “Ana wuvs her Uncle Jack the most, don’t you, sweetheart?”

“Bloody hell,” the Doctor muttered. “All of these adults around her, who have proven they can put an intelligent sentence together, and yet you all insist on stunting her language development.” 

“Oh, come off it,” Jackie replied with a wave of her hand. 

“Mum, didn’t you mention wanting to get out and do some shopping?” Rose cut in, no doubt trying to avoid the argument before it began. 

“Fantastic idea, Rose,” the Doctor replied. “I’ll just keep Ana here for a kip while you all pop off to the shops.”

“Don’t be stupid, no reason we all can’t go. There’s still another half hour until the banana bread is ready,” Jackie told him. “She can have her nap and we can all have a cuppa, doesn’t that sound lovely?”

Rose met his gaze and gave him a small, reassuring smile as he rolled his eyes good-naturedly. Though he would never admit it, tea with banana bread did sound lovely, and though he would have much preferred it be just himself and Rose in the TARDIS galley, at least Jackie’s dining room wasn’t the _last_ place in the universe he would rather be. He dropped a kiss to Ana’s curls and watched as her tiny little face erupted in a huge yawn accompanied by a flood of the sleepy hormonal cocktail he had become familiar with over the last day and a half of knowing her.

“I’ve got her,” the Doctor murmured, squeezing Rose’s shoulder with his free hand. “Spend some time with your mum, I’ll come out when she’s settled.”

“All right,” Rose replied, mimicking the Doctor’s earlier actions and laying a gentle kiss in Ana’s hair. “Sleep tight, little girl. We’ll see you when you wake up.”

Jackie and Jack insisted on bidding Ana a quick goodnight as well, and even Mickey gave a small grunt of acknowledgement in their direction before announcing he had to leave for work soon anyway. The Doctor left Rose to say goodbye while he got Ana set up for her nap, changing her nappy and bundling her in one of her soft pink blankets.

Not even half of the Gallifreyan lullaby later and she was sleeping peacefully in his arms.

******

“Blimey, there’s a lot of planning when you’re trying to leave the house with a baby,” Rose mused as she packed the baby bag for their outing. The Doctor was feeding Ana on the bed after a surprisingly enjoyable two and a half hours of Jack regaling them with stories of his time in the Agency, 90% of which ended with him and nearly everyone around him naked. The Doctor’s superior hearing had picked up on Ana’s soft coos coming from Rose’s bedroom and they’d excused themselves to get Ana ready for her first trip to the shops. Rose had already dressed the baby in one of the outfits that had been gifted to her, a sweet little long-sleeved bodysuit with tiny trousers in corresponding colors. Rose had clipped a pink bow in her hair and added a pair of warm booties, and even the Doctor admitted that Ana looked precious. “She needs a nap and a feeding and changing before we even leave! Then we need to pack like we’re going on a bloomin’ holiday: nappies, wipes, bottles, formula, burp cloths... what else am I missing?”

“Spare outfit?” the Doctor offered.

“You’re good,” Rose told him. “Knew there was a reason I kept you around.”

“Thought it was just for eye candy.”

Rose laughed. “Apart from that.” She zipped up the baby bag and glanced around the room with her brow furrowed. 

“You’ve thought of everything, Rose, don’t worry. She’ll be just fine.”

Rose sighed. “I hope so.” She sat down on the edge of the bed and watched them as Ana finished her bottle and the Doctor hoisted her gently against his shoulder for a burp. “You’re brilliant with her.”

“Nah, you’re the brilliant one,” he countered with a grin. “If it wasn’t for you, my jacket would be ruined with spit up by now.”

Rose returned his smile, but it lacked its usual sparkle. “I dunno... you can sense what she needs as soon as she needs it. You could sing her lullabies in 5 billion different languages. You know how to help her learn and develop and I’m just sitting here...” Rose shrugged sadly. “Just don’t really know why you would need to keep me around.”

“Hey,” the Doctor told her softly, shifting Ana to the crook of his arm and cupping Rose’s cheek in his palm, gently directing her to meet his gaze. “I wouldn’t be able to do any of this on my own. I’d be going mad if someone had handed me a baby before I met you. I could barely take care of myself, let alone another helpless creature.” He leaned in and kissed Rose on the forehead before pressing his own against hers. “The last thing I would have wanted was a reminder of everything I’d lost. But you, Rose Tyler, you made me better, and you’re going to make Ana’s life better, no matter how long we have her. All right?”

Rose sucked in a breath before she spoke. “All right,” she agreed in a shaky whisper. “God, you talk so good.”

The Doctor chuckled. “I do all right.” He ran a hand over her hair before pulling back and gazing at her, the intimate moment broken mere seconds later when Ana made her presence known with a loud, happy squeal. “I think she wants you.”

“Of course she does,” Rose smiled before scooping Ana into her arms. “What are we going to put her in when we go out anyway? The pram is gonna be hard to take on the tube.”

The Doctor made a face. “Why can’t we just take the TARDIS?”

“You know Mum won’t step foot on the TARDIS. Not since you brought me home a year late.”

He sighed. “Fine. I think there was something in here...” He opened the baby bag and rummaged around inside, quickly locating the long piece of rosy pink fabric he had seen the day before. “It’s a baby wrap, we can tie it in a few different ways depending on how you want to wear her. Then your hands will be free to shop too.”

Rose wrinkled her nose. “That seems complicated.”

“Here, I’ll help. Lay her down on the bed and up you get,” he said, unfolding the slightly stretchy cotton as Rose did as he asked, setting Ana down and standing above her. He moved behind Rose and began the process of wrapping the piece somewhat elaborately around her torso. He made a valiant effort to stay somewhat clinically detached and not let her closeness affect him, but he could smell her strawberry shampoo and the unique, almost floral scent of her skin, and when he brushed against her breast trying to tuck the fabric properly, he had to engage his respiratory bypass to calm his galloping hearts.

“There you are,” he willed his voice to remain steady as he tied the extra fabric in a tight knot at her hips. “Now, just need to tuck the baby right here...” He lifted Ana from the bed and held her so she was facing Rose. He slid her into the little pouch his draping had created and adjusted the fabric so it fit securely around her. “Snug as a bug, eh?”

“Yeah,” Rose said as Ana snuggled happily against her chest. She seemed content and comfortable, and Rose placed a gentle hand against her curls before brushing a soft kiss to the top of the baby’s head. “This is perfect. Thank you, Doctor,” Rose told him before standing on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek as well. “We ought to get going. Mum’s going to charge in here any moment. We’re keeping her from the shops you know.”

“Heaven forbid we keep the woman from expressing her rampant consumerism,” the Doctor muttered, picking up the baby bag and draping it over his shoulder. He held out his hand and Rose took it in both of hers with a smile. “Do me a favor, help me make sure Jack doesn’t take Ana out of our sight, all right?”

Rose let out a hearty laugh. “Deal.”

******

Two hours in and the Doctor was couldn’t help but wonder if there was a prize for endurance shopping, because if there was, Jackie Tyler would be reigning world champion. Time Lord biology aside, his physical exhaustion was nothing compared to the mental strain of her incessant chattering.

He’d never really understood the true Earth experience of a mother-in-law, but now that he had an inkling, it was giving him a migraine.

Rose and Ana were, unsurprisingly, turning into the balm that soothed not only the ache in his head but the deeper, emotional wounds he barely acknowledged he had. He felt a swell of pride every time a passerby commented on how lovely and happy Ana was and how sweet she looked snuggled up against Rose in the baby wrap. Rose would smile with polite thanks and make brief conversation about how old she was, her sleeping and eating habits, but generally made her exit before the conversation could go any deeper. She didn’t correct anyone when they referred to her as “mummy,” and the warm bubble in his chest grew a little bit each time he heard it.

They were standing in a long line at the local bookstore while Jackie browsed a nearby clothing boutique, when Jack insisted on taking Ana over to a coffee stand so he could flirt with a handsome barista. Rose dutifully handed the excited baby over to her “uncle”, laughing as Ana kicked and flailed her arms and legs as she squealed at Jack, and the Doctor gestured after their friend as he carried the baby a few feet away.

“Go on,” he said. “I’ll wait here and buy the books.”

“You sure you don’t mind?”

“Nah, can’t have him corrupting the baby. Bad enough he’s using her to pull pretty boys.”

Rose grinned and leaned up to kiss his cheek gently. “I won’t let him corrupt her, don’t worry. Meet us over at the tables when you’re done.”

“Yes, dear,” he told her with a good-natured smile and turned back towards the register as Rose followed after Jack and Ana. It took a good ten minutes for him to get to the register and another few to settle their purchases, and when he left the shop, he easily spotted Rose, Jack, and Ana sitting at a table with four different coffee beverages in front of them.

Jack was lifting Ana up into the air and pretending to devour her tummy, accompanied by various growling noises as the baby giggled heartily and Rose laughed. It was a sweet moment, and he felt a wide smile blossom over his face as he headed in their direction.

An older woman had stopped to admire the little trio just as he got within earshot. She smiled at Jack’s antics. “What a beautiful little girl! How old is she?”

“Just about three months,” Rose responded. “And thank you! Though I think we’re a little biased, aren’t we, Jack?”

“Of course, we are!”

“Look at those eyes and those curls!” The woman continued, coming a bit closer and gently tickling Ana’s belly before turning to Jack. “She looks just like her daddy, doesn’t she? She’s got your eyes and your hair!”

The hot flash of... _something_ that rushed through the Doctor’s chest at those words was completely unexpected and, therefore, uncontrollable. He suddenly wanted to snatch Rose and Ana away from Jack, wrap them up in his arms, and let everyone know that they were his and no one else’s.

“Actually,” the Doctor fought to keep his voice calm as he approached the table. Rose turned back to him and gave him a wide, happy smile, and he felt the hot possessiveness cool a bit at her obvious joy at seeing him. He wrapped an arm around her waist and tucked her into his side. “She’s _ours_.”

“Oh!” the woman started at the Doctor’s sudden appearance. “I apologize for assuming. Well, either way, she’s lovely! Congratulations to the two of you!”

Rose was gazing at him quizzically as the woman left. “Ours?”

The Doctor glanced down at Rose, at her confused expression, and the enormity of what his stupid pride had led him to do suddenly washed over him. Wasn’t he the one who had pushed the idea that Ana could probably have a better life with someone else? He was happy to tend to the baby in the meantime, but he was already getting attached. His little caveman act proved it. 

Letting his guard down again wasn’t an option. 

He cleared his throat and stepped away from Rose and crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah, well, didn’t want Jack here getting a big head. That mine?” He nodded towards one of the unclaimed cups of coffee sitting on the table.

Rose’s inquiring gaze was replaced by narrowed-eyed fury. He gulped internally but didn’t falter in his stance. “Yeah,” Rose told him, her tone careful and even, which was somehow more terrifying than if she had been shouting at him. 

He scoffed inwardly. He was the Last of the Time Lords, the Oncoming Storm. Entire civilizations had once trembled at his name. He had no reason to be scared of a five and a half foot, twenty-year-old blonde girl from London. 

“Thanks,” the Doctor replied, avoiding her gaze as he dropped in the seat next to Jack, who was grinning.

“Somebody’s in trouble,” the former time agent sing-songed quietly. The Doctor glared at him, not saying a word, before tucking into his coffee.

The Doctor sat, sipping his coffee, actively avoiding Rose’s gaze by focusing on Jack, who was showing Ana one of the brightly colored board books they had just purchased. Jackie joined them eventually and took her overly sweet pumpkin flavored beverage from Rose before showing off the entirely-too-frilly baby outfits she had just purchased. The Doctor thought it was best to remain quiet while the humans chatted. Rose bantered cheerfully enough with her mum and Jack and cooed at Ana, but he swore he could feel the full weight of her angry glare on him for the remainder of their shopping trip.

He could only imagine what sort of earful he’d be getting once they returned to the flat. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the delay! I started a new job and orientation has been BRUTAL! Even though I’m working fewer days, they’re swing shifts and it’s hard to get back on a schedule after that!
> 
> The good news is that chapter 6 is with my fantastic beta, and chapter 7 is halfway done already! So I can only hope you guys won’t have to wait too long for the next one!
> 
> Thanks to everyone for cheering this one on! Your comments and kudos mean SO MUCH and they keep me going! I hope this chapter and the extra-long chapter 6 make up for the long break!

Barely thirty seconds after they walked into the flat from their trip to the shops, Rose handed a sleeping Ana over to her mother and Jack and turned to the Doctor, her whiskey-colored eyes fixing him in a thunderous glare.

“I need to speak to you in the TARDIS,” she snapped at him. “ _Alone_.”

Rose turned on her heel and stormed back through the flat’s door, slamming it inelegantly behind her. The Doctor winced and hesitated a bit, contemplating how to best protect his remaining regenerations when Jack waltzed over and draped his arm over the Doctor’s shoulder.

“I don’t know why you crazy kids just can’t work this out,” he teased. “I’d be happy to offer you a few pointers... maybe a demonstration or two...?”

“Very funny, Harkness,” the Doctor deadpanned.

“I know, I’m hilarious,” Jack replied. “But I’m dead serious about this, Doc: you _better_ make this right. Because I’m warning you, if you cause a _single tear_ to fall from her eye, I’ve got a 51st Century agency-issued blaster, a shovel, and a vortex manipulator. They’d never find the body. Do I make myself clear?”

“That supposed to sound intimidating?”

“Not at all. Just...factual.” Jack clapped him on the shoulder as his tone turned jovial once again. “Good luck!”

“Thanks.” The Doctor drew in a breath and exited the flat, following the familiar path to the TARDIS and unlocking the door quickly. Rose was already inside, leaning against a coral strut and staring at the console with her arms crossed over her chest and her brow furrowed. When she heard the door open her head whipped around and she eyed him up with a glare that would have brought Davros himself to his knees.

“And what the _hell_ was all that about?”

The Doctor scoffed, trying to sound unaffected by her ire. He moved to the console and began absently fiddling with different knobs and switches. “What was what about?”

“Don’t play this game with me, Doctor. You know exactly what I’m talking about. Your bloody pissing contest when that nice older woman thought Jack was Ana’s father. It wasn’t about bringing Jack down a notch and you know it.”

“Well, what else would it be about?” the Doctor countered. “She’s _not_ ours. You’re not her mother, I’m not her father. She had parents, and they _died_. We’re just keeping her alive until we find a better option for her.”

“That’s bull shit and you know it!”

The Doctor gaped at the anger in Rose’s voice. They’d rowed before, but she had never _sworn_ at him before. He knew he’d upset her and had realized it was bad, but he’d underestimated how absolutely _livid_ she was.

He was still trying to formulate a response when Rose’s heated rant continued.

“God, you’re completely impossible. You can’t allow yourself one moment of happiness without destroying it before it destroys you, can you?”

The Doctor scoffed again, crossing his arms over his chest as her words pierced his hearts far deeper than he expected. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Doctor, I see how sweet you are with that baby,” Rose continued, moving closer to him. “You look at her like she hung the moon. You hold her at night and make sure everyone who touches her washes their hands. You’re singing her lullabies in your native language for God’s sake! And then!” she took a threatening step toward him and he had to force himself to hold his ground. “You turn around and all you can talk about is how she’s not _ours_ , that this is only _temporary_...”

“It has to be!” He lost the battle to keep his voice even. “This is my life, Rose! You know that! You’re right in the thick of it! You’re the one holding my hand while we run away from dictators and angry mobs and... blimey, even door-to-door vacuum salesmen! You know how dangerous it can be!”

“I’m also right there with you watching beautiful alien sunsets, and shopping on asteroids light years from here, and meeting Charles Dickens, and seeing all those incredible places that I never would see stuck on Earth!”

“Have you forgotten being drugged unconscious, and carried away in a hearse when we met Charles Dickens? Because I _haven’t_. I _can’t_! I can’t forget all the times you nearly poisoned yourself or the fact that we end up in an alien prison every few weeks! Do you want Ana to have that life?”

Rose groaned, pressing the heels of her hands to her brow as if warding off a headache. “I am so sick of this, Doctor. I resigned myself to the fact that you would always keep me at arm’s length. It was worth it, if it meant I could still stay with you. I accepted it. But I _won’t_ accept that for Ana. She doesn’t deserve that.” Rose was directly in front of him now, eyes blazing, cheeks tinged pink, and full of gorgeous fire. Blimey, she was beautiful. “She doesn’t deserve to have a man in her life who always has one foot out the door. And you know what? Neither do I.”

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

Rose glared at him. “You know _exactly_ what I mean. I won’t let you break her heart. I _won’t_.” She glanced down at the floor before sucking in a deep, shuddering breath and raising her gaze to meet his. Her eyes were full of steely resolve. “If this is how you’re going to be to her, if you really think that she’d be better off without you, then just leave me and her with my mum.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Very funny, Rose. Really and truly hilarious.”

“Do I look like I’m bloody joking, Doctor?”

She certainly looked serious, but the Doctor refused to believe she was. She couldn’t leave him... didn’t she realize how badly he needed her by his side? Needed the feel of her hand in his? 

But what if she really _did_ mean it?

His hearts started racing in panic as the weight of her words sunk into his massive brain.

“You can’t.”

“Of course I can. And if you’re going to be wishy-washy, letting Ana get attached to you just to up and leave her whenever _you_ decide, then she and I are better off here with my mum and Mickey.

The Doctor felt a rumble growing in his chest. “Rickey? Over my dead body.”

“He’s a good man, Doctor. He’s loyal and kind and he would do anything for me, and Ana by extension. He would make a _great_ dad.”

“Stop it,” the Doctor growled out. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Like hell I don’t.”

“No,” he breathed out, his world spiraling in front of him as it finally sunk in how fiercely Rose would protect Ana. There was very little she wouldn’t do for that baby... and the same went for him. He would do anything he could to protect her... even give her up if he had to. 

_Blimey_ , he thought as a few pieces of his broken hearts slotted perfectly back into alignment and all the fight went out of him. _We’re_ parents, _aren’t_ we? 

The Doctor’s actions were a step ahead of his brain as the realization spread through him. The panic Rose’s threats had caused and the lingering adrenaline from their fight took over his higher mental functions. He stepped forward and, wrapping his hands around her waist, pulled her against him. Ignoring her indignant squeak of surprise, he buried his face in her sweet-smelling hair. “You can’t leave me. Rose, you _have_ to know what saying those things does to me.” He pulled his head back and pressed his forehead to hers, dropping his voice to a near-whisper. “Please,” he pleaded, and he felt her body relax against his. “Please, Rose... don’t leave me. I need you... and I...” He swallowed against the lump in his throat and pulled back so he could cup her face in his hands and look in her eyes. “I need Ana, too. Blimey, I never knew how badly I needed two people until I had both of you in my arms and everything was perfect...”

“And you suddenly realized how much you had to lose, didn’t you?” Rose asked him, her voice soft now, but full of emotion.

Their eyes met, Rose’s face still cradled in his hands. All he wanted in the world was to feel her lips against his. His eyes slid shut, her gorgeous mouth drawing him in like a magnet, but her finger suddenly pressed against his lips to stop him. His eyes snapped open again.

“If we do this,” Rose whispered. “You have to promise me. You have to _promise_ me that you won’t leave us off somewhere for our own good. That we protect that baby... _together_.”

The Doctor nearly sank to his knees. “Ask me anything else,” he murmured. “Anything else in the universe, Rose, it’s yours. But I can’t promise you that.” He brushed a lock of her blonde hair off her forehead. “If it’s truly the best thing for you, and the best way to keep you safe, I _have_ to be able to let you go. You’re... oh, Rose,” he murmured, floundering a bit for words. “You’re... so important to me. You and Ana are everything I never knew I wanted and I _need_ you both safe.” He stared at Rose for a moment before continuing. “You know you would do the same thing. You would give her up if it meant saving her life.”

Rose took in a deep breath before gazing up at him. “You can’t make that decision for us, though. We make it _together_. Promise me.”

The Doctor once again cupped Rose’s face in his hands. “I _can’t_ , Rose. You don’t see what I see, every day. You have no idea. Everything that was, that is, everything that _could_ be. It’s all in my head and I have to make the hard decisions because _only I can_.” He brought his forehead back to rest against hers. “I’m the last of the Time Lords. I _have_ to do this because there is no one else.”

“There’s me,” Rose met his gaze, her eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “At least promise not to shut me out, yeah?”

The Doctor took in a deep, shuddering breath. “I’ll try. I promise you that I will _try_. And I can promise that I will do everything in my power to protect you and Ana. _Everything_.”

Rose nodded. “All right,” she whispered. “Baby steps, yeah?”

The Doctor grinned. “Baby steps,” he agreed before sweeping in and claiming her lips with his.

Warmth suffused his entire being, starting from where their lips met and spreading throughout his entire body, like slipping into a warm bath at the end of a very, _very_ long day. For the first moment since pressing that blasted button and watching his planet burn, the Doctor finally, _finally_ , felt like he was home.

******

It took less time than Rose expected to develop a new “normal,” as much as their life allowed for anything even slightly resembling “normal.” Then again, she shouldn’t have been surprised, based on how quickly she and the Doctor had accepted their new roles in Ana’s life. Once the invisible boundary of their relationship with each other and with Ana had been dissolved, the Doctor seemed to throw himself into parenthood, and watching him care for Ana often left Rose utterly speechless.

Their routine settled quickly. They learned more about Ana with each passing day and discovered how to adapt around these new revelations. It was difficult to fall into a sleeping pattern with her, as they found out on their second night together that she didn’t always need to sleep all night. It seemed she only needed to sleep for long stretches about every other day, despite taking semi-regular naps, but the Doctor didn’t mind staying up with her on the nights she didn’t sleep.

Jackie loved walking Ana around the estate in the pram, showing off her new “granddaughter” to all their friends and neighbors. Everyone seemed in agreement that Ana was a gorgeous, sweet-tempered little baby and they had more offers for babysitters than Rose could count. 

Jack was staying on the sofa of Jackie’s flat and had fallen seamlessly into his role of the “fun-cle,” as he liked to call it. He was the daredevil, tossing Ana into the air just a hair too high for Rose and the Doctor’s liking, spinning her a bit too quickly, or breaking into a swift jog while he was pushing the pram. Ana absolutely adored him and would squeal excitedly whenever he entered the room, flailing her chubby arms until he came and scooped her up.

They learned that Ana would most likely be ahead in her milestones. Her need for less sleep seemed to show that her brain processed information more efficiently than a human’s. When they noticed Ana trying to push herself up into a crawl at barely four months old, the Doctor declared her a genius and pushed several of her favorite toys out of reach to encourage her.

_Not just Ana growing and developing_ , Rose thought to herself as she watched the two of them play happily on the floor. The Doctor glanced up at her and gave her a devastating grin that melted her insides into a puddle. The brilliant snogs they had exchanged since their row in the TARDIS hadn’t progressed any further, and Rose wasn’t entirely certain when or if they ever would. They shared her bed every night Ana would sleep, and generally woke up entangled in one another’s arms. She was completely gone on him and had been for ages, and those glorious kisses were seriously testing her resolve, but something in her head always stopped her from pressing further.

While Rose trusted the Doctor with her life and Ana’s, she wasn’t entirely certain she trusted him with her heart. She knew he would do anything to protect them, and the fact that giving them up was still an option to him was something she couldn’t resolve in her mind.

He’d promised to _try_ , and that was enough for now. They had time. In fact, they had _all_ of time in front of them, and Rose was itching to get back into it.

“Doctor?” She asked tentatively as he pushed another toy just out of Ana’s reach. They were alone in the flat, Jack and Jackie having gone out for quiz night at Jackie’s favorite pub, and Rose relished the rare quiet moment with just the three of them.

“Yes, Rose?”

“D’you think... it might be time?”

“Hmm? Time for what, love?”

Rose flushed a bit at the endearment, something she hoped she’d never get used to hearing. “Time to get back to our old life? Well... our new life, I suppose... or our new-old life?”

“You want to leave?”

“Yeah, a bit,” she admitted. “We’ve been here for two weeks. I think we’re doing a bang-up job taking care of Ana. It’s nice having my mum around and all, but I’m ready to get back out there...” She trailed off a bit, gazing at him quizzically. “Aren’t you?”

“I’m ready whenever you are,” he said, though something in his tone was still hesitant.

“Are you worried about her?” Rose asked, nodding towards Ana, who had rolled over on her back and was happily gumming on a soft teething ring.

“Of course I am,” he told her with a sigh, rubbing his hand over his face wearily.

“Well, just try to steer clear of trouble until she’s old enough to run for her life,” she stated simply.

The Doctor chuckled before rising from the floor and joining Rose on the sofa. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she instantly tucked herself into his side. “You act like I have a say in the matter.”

“I trust the TARDIS not to put us in danger intentionally,” Rose said as she reached for his hand and laced their fingers together. “She loves Ana almost as much as we do.”

He chuckled again. “That she does.” They both watched Ana roll about on the blanket for several minutes, laughing when she did something particularly brilliant or made even the slightest little noise. He pressed a little kiss to Rose’s hair, and she sighed happily, burrowing deeper into his side.

“We’ll ask Jack when he gets back tonight,” Rose finally broke the silence. “If he’s ready to leave, we’ll go tomorrow. How’s that sound?”

The Doctor looked down at her with a soft smile. He brushed a lock of hair off her forehead and Rose hoped he couldn’t feel her pulse galloping at the smallest of his touches. He leaned in and brushed his lips against hers, feather-soft, and Rose nearly pouted when he pulled away.

“Fantastic, Rose,” he murmured. “That sounds _fantastic_.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here’s a nice hefty one to make up for my absence! Thank my fabulous beta TenRoseForeverandEver for it getting here at all! This chapter is also dedicated to Caedmon who constantly knows how to keep me motivated!
> 
> Chapter 7 is done, just waiting for a final pass from the best beta ever! Hopefully I’ll get it posted next week!

Jackie had tears in her eyes as they stood in the flat’s entryway and said goodbye the next day. The Doctor had moved the TARDIS early on in the day to easier facilitate packing up Ana’s belongings while Jackie was able to have a few exclusive hours with the baby. It hadn’t taken that long to pack, but the Doctor, in an uncharacteristically sensitive move, had claimed the TARDIS needed some tweaks before they could leave. The time had coincided with one of Ana’s naps, and Jackie was content to hold a sleeping Ana while she and Rose had chatted quietly.

Rose watched in awe as her mum stepped towards the Doctor and wrapped her arms around him. She recalled the many slaps Jackie had given him in the time she’d known him and had to suppress her smirk.

“Promise me you’ll take care of them both,” she pleaded to the Doctor as she hugged him. Rose was surprised to see him hug her back just as tightly.

“I promise,” he murmured as she released him. Jackie turned her attention to Jack, who picked her up in a huge, spinning embrace as Jackie squealed with joy.

“I knew they’d get on like houses,” Rose said to the Doctor as he reached for Ana so Rose could bid her mother a proper goodbye.

“A bit too well, though.” The Doctor rolled his eyes, then kissed Ana on the forehead as the baby smiled widely at him. “She’s not coming with us,” he added pointedly.

Rose laughed as Jackie turned to her and enveloped her in a huge hug. “Watch out for those two, Rose. You make a good team, so take care of each other and watch out for my beautiful granddaughter, yeah?”

“Course, mum,” Rose replied as Jackie squeezed her tight.

“You’ll always have a home here,” Jackie told her. “Don’t forget that, love. You all come back any time you need it.”

“We will, Jackie,” the Doctor replied. 

“Good. Now hand over that baby, her gran needs one more fix before you go gallivanting around in that blue box.”

The Doctor handed Ana to Jackie only somewhat grudgingly, and Rose grinned as she wrapped her arms around his torso. “Everything ready?”

“Yeah,” he replied, brushing a kiss over her forehead. “I left a few of Ana’s things in your room. The TARDIS has everything we need.”

“Mum will be pleased,” she told him. A sweet, content warmth spread from her chest through her entire body as the Doctor returned her smile with adoration evident in his eyes.

“What do you say, Rose Tyler?” he asked as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “To the stars?”

“To the stars,” she agreed as he dropped a kiss on her lips. “Mum, I’m sorry but we have to get going.”

Jackie sighed and hugged Ana once more to her. “I know.”

“We’ll be back in a couple of weeks, tops,” Jack assured her.

“A couple of weeks for you lot too, yeah? I don’t want to miss a year of my granddaughter’s life even if it’s only a few days here, do you hear me?”

“Fiftieth century colonies on Mars hear you,” the Doctor muttered, loud enough to earn a patented Jackie Tyler slap on the arm.

Jack laughed. “Mother-in-laws, eh? Come on, let’s get this little lady out in the stars where she belongs!”

Jackie handed Ana back to Rose and gave them both one last kiss before the four of them turned back and stepped into their beloved time ship.

The TARDIS had supplied the jumpseat with a sturdy infant seat with proper safety straps, and Rose touched a coral strut gently to send her thanks to the ship. She strapped the wriggling baby into the seat and settled next to her as the Doctor took his place at the controls.

“So,” he flashed them an excited grin, “all of time and space. Where shall we take this little one on her first adventure?”

******

The relative ease of their journeys over the next few weeks were wonderful. The TARDIS touched down on remote beaches, alien marketplaces, and family-friendly festivals all over the universe. They shared picnics and outings and Rose loved that Ana was being exposed to so many different people and places. They gracefully received compliments on their little family, but it became oddly evident that the Doctor still wouldn’t refer to himself as Ana’s “dad,” and wouldn’t refer to Rose as her “mum.”

He never corrected those that assumed as such, and he threw himself into the role so fully that Rose truly didn’t sense anything was amiss for the first couple of weeks. She wasn’t sure he even realized it himself. It wasn’t until about a month into their travels, when Jack handed Ana over to the Doctor with a, “Here, sweetheart, time to go to Daddy now,” that she noticed the Doctor’s shoulders tense for a fraction of a second. If she hadn’t been so in tune with him, she probably wouldn’t have even noticed it. Ana seemed to fit so seamlessly in their life that she couldn’t fathom what was holding him back.

For her part, Rose found herself falling more in love with their new normal with every passing day. She could see that Jack, too, adored having a little one on board. Although they hadn’t considered toppling a corrupt government or saving an entire species since Ana had come onboard, she was finding life on the TARDIS be even more fulfilling than she could have ever imagined.

Her joy at their new life made the Doctor’s hesitance all the more perplexing to her, especially as he interacted so lovingly and sweetly with Ana and she was desperate to find out what was wrong. Still, she didn’t want the Doctor to retreat further into his own head by questioning him too harshly on the strange behavior. It took a few days to formulate a plan to gently coax him into the topic beneath the brilliant autumn foliage in Aspen, Colorado. 

“Doctor,” she began slowly and carefully after he had snogged her nearly to the point of distraction, “why don’t you want to be called Ana’s dad?”

He stiffened in her arms and pulled away. Rose could practically feel the walls slamming shut around him, the ones she had worked so hard to break through, and she wouldn’t let him get away with putting them up now.

“I’m not sure what you mean,” he muttered, glancing at the sky. “It’s late, we should get Ana back to the TARDIS for her nap.”

“She’s fine, Jack’s got her,” Rose insisted as she followed after him and grasped onto his hand. “You’re not getting away with deflecting this. You never call me her mum, or you her dad. We’re as close as she has, Doctor. She’s _ours_ , by law and in our hearts. I know how much you love her. I see it on your face every day. I know things changed fast...”

“Yeah,” he murmured before sighing deeply and turning towards her. He grasped her free hand in his and pressed his forehead against hers. “But she had a mum and dad, Rose. They were alive and real and loved her so much. It... doesn’t feel right just yet. It’s like we’re trying to replace them.”

Rose met his gaze, stunned. Of all the scenarios that had driven her completely mad when she’d imagined this conversation over and over again, _this_ was certainly not among them. She’d imagined him pulling away, distancing himself emotionally again, refusing to accept his role in Ana’s life despite his efforts over the past weeks but certainly not him feeling tremendous guilt over replacing her deceased parents.

“We could never replace them.” She reached up to cup his cheek. “That’s not how it works. But we can make sure Ana knows where she came from and remind her every day how lucky she is to have had four parents who loved her completely.” 

The Doctor hesitated in his response, and Rose took the opportunity to continue. “I know you lost everyone. Your whole family, everyone you cared about. I know no one could ever replace them.” Her heart ached as his blue eyes turned pained at her words. “But there are people here who care about you and can make it easier to get through the days. Like me. And Jack and Ana... and even my mum.”

He barked out a laugh at that, and the happy sound gave Rose such relief that she couldn’t help but grab his face and give him a thorough snog. After they broke apart, she sighed happily and beamed at him. He wasn’t holding back for fear of losing them, nor was he holding back because he feared for their safety. He was holding back on this last aspect of parenting because he wanted to honor the memory of Ana’s parents and her heritage. His family, his planet... his entire heritage and history was gone, and he didn’t want that for her.

“Why don’t we go back to Ana’s planet and try to find out more about her parents?” she asked him. “We can try to find pictures or articles about them so we have stories to share as she gets older.”

A brilliant grin stretched over the Doctor’s face. “Yeah,” he agreed as he reached up to cup her cheek. “that’d be fantastic. Rose Tyler... what would I do without you?”

“Your blood pressure would be far lower, I’d wager,” she teased, tucking her tongue between her teeth in what she had learned over the last couple of months was his favorite expression.

His gaze darkened and, rather than respond, he simply leaned in and chased her tongue with his own.

******

It wasn’t long before the sky began to turn a deep blue and a chill settled into the air. Jack returned from spinning through the falling leaves with a giggling, rosy-cheeked baby who immediately reached her little arms out for the Doctor. He chuckled softly and reached over, unbuckling the carrier and lifting her carefully away.

"Hello, little one," he said, bouncing her a bit in his arms. "Did you have fun with your Uncle Jack?"

"Of course, she did," Jack replied. "She was a little disappointed that there were no lovely ladies around I could introduce her to."

"Oh, I'll bet she was," Rose teased, lacing an arm through Jack's and following the Doctor and Ana back to the TARDIS. "Are you up for a little side trip?"

"Aren't I always?" Jack told her with a grin. "Where to?"

"Ana's home planet," she answered. "Grombenial... something or other..."

"Grombenius Epsilon," the Doctor called as he unlocked the TARDIS doors. "We're going to try and get some information on Ana's birth parents." He paused as he buckled Ana into her little infant seat, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Might want to see if we can claim some of their belongings too. I'd like to examine their genetics, to see what this little lady could have inherited."

"The more you know," Jack said in a teasing voice as he stood opposite the Doctor and began the dematerialization sequence that Rose was so familiar with. She sat next to Ana on the jumpseat and took her tiny hand, watching as the baby’s fingers wrapped around her thumb and squeezed hard.

"Did you hear that, sweetheart?" Rose told her. "We're going to see about your parents, the ones who loved you first. That way you can grow up knowing them _and_ knowing us. Isn't that brilliant?"

The Doctor glanced over at them with a small smile, his eyes shining suspiciously. He turned his attention back to the console so he could land them as smoothly as possible, but Rose didn't miss the sweet and completely smitten expression on his face.

******

It took barely any time for the Doctor to announce they had landed, and Rose helped Ana get situated back in the baby carrier that was strapped on Jack's chest while the Doctor checked the baby bag to ensure they had everything they needed.

"Are you sure you don't want us to bring the pram?" she asked Jack as he adjusted the straps on the carrier. "You've been wearing her all day!"

“Nah, it’s our thing, isn’t it?” he replied, pressing a kiss to Ana’s dark curls. She was facing towards him, as was her preference around nap time. As if on cue, she yawned deeply and glanced up at Jack, gave him a sleepy little smile, settled her head against his chest, and was breathing deeply within seconds.

“‘S enough to melt your heart, isn’t it?” She said, giving her friend a grin as she patted Ana’s head gently.

“Or hearts,” the Doctor’s voice came from behind her. He wrapped an arm around her waist and mirrored Jack’s earlier actions, dropping a kiss to her hair. “You ready?”

“All set,” Rose replied. She gave him a reassuring smile as the makeshift family left the time ship and stepped into the watery, early-morning sunlight.

Rose hadn’t had much time to take in the planet either time she had been here. The first time, she and the Doctor had spent most of their trip holed up inside the medical building as he worked hard to create a vaccine for the virus that had been decimating the population and Rose had tried to bring comfort to as many of the sick patients as possible. The second had been a whirlwind of confusion and excitement, finding out they were going to be Ana’s guardians. Now that she had time to enjoy the scenery, she noted that the planet wasn’t so dissimilar from Earth, but Rose still felt a special thrill stepping out beneath a new sky. This one had a yellowish hue to it, looking pastel in the early light. The grass and trees were similar to those she was used to but held a hint of blue making them look more teal than green, and Rose recalled the Doctor explaining something about how the water vapors on the planet didn’t produce visible clouds in the sky. It was strangely ethereal, and Rose inhaled the unique scent of the air happily as she, the Doctor, and Jack made their way to the registrar’s office.

The same blue-tinted clerk who had arranged their custody of Ana was sitting in the window, shuffling papers around. He looked up at the bell that chimed upon their entrance and his eyes went wide with recognition. “Doctor Tyler! Mrs. Tyler! What a pleasure to see you again! I hope everything is okay with little Anashamaya...?

“Just wonderful,” Rose beamed, turning her grin to the Doctor upon hearing them referred to as a married couple. He gave her a soft smile in return, squeezing her hand and neither of them bothered to correct the clerk. “She’s just sleeping on her Uncle Jack there.” Rose gestured to her friend, who immediately put on a brilliant smile and stuck out a hand.

“Captain Jack Harkness,” he offered flirtatiously. “At your service.”

The clerk stammered a bit and the deep blue color that appeared in his cheeks was unmistakably a blush. “Geon,” he replied, shaking Jack’s outstretched hand.

“Stop it, Jack,” the Doctor warned. “Listen, Geon, we were wondering if you could direct us to more information about Anashamaya’s parentage.”

“Certainly, sir! I imagine the archives would be an excellent place to begin,” he replied. “They also might be willing to grant you access to her birth parents’ employee files at the clinic.”

“Do you know where their belongings could have ended up?” Rose asked. “We’d really like to have some of their things to give to Anashamaya one day.”

Geon smiled at Rose. “Admirable, Mrs. Tyler. They would be at the family home, which is being kept in trust for the little one when she comes of age. If you show your guardianship papers of Anashamaya, since she is their next of kin, the trust would most happily release the keys and anything you may like to keep for her.”

“And this isn’t something you felt needed mentioning when we were here the first time?” The Doctor asked, his arms crossed over his chest.

“W-well, the trust was still being set up, Doctor,” he replied, gulping at the Doctor’s irritated tone. “We had no information to give you at the time. In fact, I was going to send you and Mrs. Tyler a formal transmission any day now...”

“I’m sure you were,” Rose interjected, resting a soothing hand on the Doctor’s arm. “Where might we be able to find the trust information now?”

“First Ohio Bank,” Geon told her promptly. 

Rose snickered. “Sorry... Ohio?”

Geon smiled at her. “The founder was very proud of his Earth roots. He was able to trace his lineage all the way back to twentieth-century Ohio and he liked to make sure everyone knew it. Now, if you’ll be so kind as to give me just a moment, I will retrieve a map of the settlement and go over all the important locations you’ll need.”

He shuffled away from the window and Jack wasted no time in turning a teasing grin on the Doctor. “So... did I miss something? Did you and Rose go off and elope without me?”

“Don’t be stupid,” the Doctor told him. “They just assumed we were married. Easy mistake to make when we go around introducing ourselves as ‘The Doctor and Rose Tyler’.”

“Noticed you’ve stopped correcting them,” Rose teased gently.

The Doctor grinned at her. “What’s the point? We’re together, we’re raising a baby... we’re pretty damn close, aren’t we?”

“Awfully presumptuous of you, considering you missed a vital step in the process,” Rose told him, her voice dropping low.

“And what might that be, Mrs. Tyler?” The Doctor matched his tone to hers, making her knees wobble ever so slightly.

Rose stepped close to him and tucked her arms under his jacket, circling them around his waist. His eyelids dropped ever so slightly as Rose stood up on her tiptoes and barely brushed her lips against his. “You’re gonna have to ask my mum,” she whispered before placing a dainty kiss on the corner of his mouth.

The Doctor’s horrified expression when she pulled away was enough to make her burst out laughing and kiss him apologetically while Jack whistled softly in the background.

******

Ana slept on as they sat at a local cafe Geon had circled on the map, sampling some of the local food that was remarkably similar to Earth cuisine except that the meat and cheese came from native animals. As soon as she awoke and had her bottle and a change, they decided to split up to get as much information as they could. Jack was going to head to the archives armed with the psychic paper so he could gather as much as he was able on Ana’s genealogy. Rose strapped Ana to her chest while the Doctor once again shouldered the baby bag before heading over to the First Ohio Bank. The Doctor had come prepared with their guardianship papers and after only a few minutes of verification, they left with the keys to a home that was only a short distance from the bank. They walked hand in hand, Ana chattering and wriggling happily in her carrier as the Doctor told Rose a little about the history of the settlement. 

A scant fifteen minutes later, the Doctor was opening the door to a sweet little two-story home. It sat on a residential street with many homes that were similar in structure, but each had its own unique flair. This one was decorated simply in a pretty blue with white trim and detail. A white flowering tree stood in the small front yard and there was a low white fence that surrounded the entire property. It seemed to be well-kept, and Rose wondered out loud who had been tending to the lovely, teal grass.

“There’s a caretaker that’s part of the trust I would imagine,” the Doctor replied, opening the fence and guiding Rose through. “It’s probably all in that paperwork they gave us. We’ll look through it when Ana goes down for the night.”

“Ugh, I’m sorry.”

The Doctor glanced at her before he opened the front door, an eyebrow raised. “What for?”

“I know you hate paperwork,” she replied, squeezing his arm.

He shrugged his shoulders and turned his attention back to the lock. “Not so bad when I have you to help me.”

“Better with two?” Rose told him with a grin, an expression he returned as he pushed the brown wood door open and they entered the home.

Ana kicked and babbled excitedly as the simple, clean space came into view and they laughed a little at her reaction. Rose figured it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that she remembered the home she’d shared with her parents. She had proven to be an exceptionally bright baby and her capacity for memory could certainly be much greater than the human babies Rose was used to.

“It’s like they never left,” Rose said quietly as they glanced around what seemed to be a living room, a lump rising unexpectedly in her throat. “It still looks perfect, like they’re going to walk through that door any second.”

The Doctor squeezed her hand. “Why don’t you find Ana’s room and let her play there for a bit? I’ll find the office and start trying to make sense of their files.”

“Yeah,” Rose agreed. “I’ll do that. Thanks, Doctor.”

He leaned in and gave her a kiss that lingered just a moment longer than usual, making her body flush with warmth, before grasping onto her hand and leading her up the nearby staircase.

******

Rose didn’t have much difficulty finding Ana’s bedroom. Her heart sank as she took in the bright room, decorated in soft lavender and white, with a traditional-looking crib sitting disassembled in the corner and a small cradle sitting by a window. Rose sat on the floor with Ana, pulling over a small container of toys, some she recognized and some that were beyond her 21st century knowledge. Ana seemed thrilled, tugging herself along on her tummy to reach for the various, brightly-colored objects.

It couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes before the Doctor came into the room and sat on the floor next to Rose. She smiled at him and leaned into his side, inhaling the familiar scent of his leather jacket as she entwined her fingers with his.

“Penny for ‘em?” the Doctor asked.

Rose chuckled. “Hardly worth that much.”

“Try me.”

Rose glanced over at Ana and heaved a deep sigh. “I’m happy we have her,” she began slowly. “I didn’t realize how happy she would make us. But...”

“You’re sad, too.”

“Yeah,” she admitted. “Her parents won’t get to see her crawl for the first time. Or walk. They won’t hear her first words or her first sentence. They planned and hoped for a lifetime with her, and it was all snatched away in an instant.”

“Makes you appreciate what you have,” the Doctor continued for her. “Living your life, day after day... no regrets.”

“Exactly,” she replied with a sniffle, watching Ana try to shove a large plastic ring in her mouth. “Sorry, being here is making me think too much.”

“I could never have too much of your thoughts, Rose Tyler.”

Rose grinned and hugged his arm. “How’d you fare?” she asked him. “You didn’t take long.”

“Well, I found all of the insurance information,” he replied. “Their will, the policies, even some photo albums we can take with us.” He trailed off and watched Ana for a few moments before continuing. “Ana will own the home when she turns twenty-one, and there are funds set up from the trust to keep it in working order for her. There’s also a clause that says we are authorized to act sort of as her powers of attorney. We could live here with her and oversee the home ourselves if we so choose.”

“Well that was nice of them to add,” Rose replied. “We can always come back and check on things every so often.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, taking in a breath. “Or...”

Rose glanced up at him, surprised to see the tips of his ears turning slightly pink. “Or...?” she prompted.

“We could, you know... stay here.”

“What, at the house?”

“Yeah.” He turned around to face her. “Here, or London... wherever you want. We could give her the life her parents wanted to give her... day after day, a house with walls and doors, school, friends...”

Rose gaped at him. “You’re serious?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “If that’s what you want, we’ll do it. We could do it today.”

“You really think you could do that? Stay in one place for the next, what... twenty years?”

He shrugged. “I’ve done it before, with far less anchoring me there. More important is whether _you_ want to.”

Rose sat and stared at him. Here he was, the last of the Time Lords, who had a duty to protect the universe since no one else could. He was willing to put it all on hold for a couple of decades to be with her and Ana. Whether it was in the little blue house, or in a London flat, he didn’t care. He just wanted them to be _happy_.

One of the tiny shreds of doubt that was still left fell away from her heart, and she leaned in to kiss him gently but thoroughly.

“I want you,” she murmured when they broke apart. “I want our life on the TARDIS. Ana does too, can’t you tell? She loves traveling already. We can come here anytime she needs to feel... I dunno... connected to her parents and her planet, can’t we? Just like you bring me back to my mum’s any time I ask.”

He grinned at her. “Course we can.”

Rose smiled back and they sat in silence for several moments, watching Ana pull herself across the floor and attack her toys with delighted squeals. “So, after we wrap up here, where shall we take our little traveler next?”

The Doctor tucked her under his arm. “I was thinking Kyoto, 1336. Most beautiful cherry blossoms you’ll ever see. How’s that sound?”

“That,” Rose replied. “sounds absolutely _brilliant!_.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All recognizable dialogue is from the episode “Bad Wolf.” I did not write it nor do I own it.
> 
> TenRoseForeverandEver is the only reason the resembles anything coherent, and she deserves mad props.
> 
> Next chapter is done and the following is in progress! Thanks for sticking with me and for all your wonderful reviews! I promise I’ll hop on and reply as soon as my stupid schedule allows!

Their time in Kyoto was one of those picture-perfect afternoons that had Rose so relaxed and content she almost didn’t want to leave it behind. Once the sun began to set and a chill settled into the air, she agreed that they should get Ana back on the TARDIS. Jack had insisted on wearing her facing inwards in case she fell asleep, but Rose strongly suspected he really just liked how cuddly it made her. Ana was grasping his thumbs in her tiny hands and kicking so excitedly as she gave him wide toothless grins that they were all laughing as they boarded the ship and the Doctor took them into the Vortex once again.

Rose was still smiling when a sudden bright light engulfed the four of them. She glanced to the side, her heart racing in panic as Jack and Ana disappeared next to her.

She met the Doctor’s frightened eyes, reaching for him, soundlessly screaming his name as she felt herself being tugged out of the ship.

******

The Doctor came to consciousness, closed in by three mirrored walls and a sealed door in front of him. He bolted upwards and spun around in the small space before pressing on the door and tumbling through into a brightly lit, colorful room. His head felt heavy and scrambled, and he couldn’t quite get his footing underneath him.

“Oh, my God!” a voice exclaimed and he felt small arms try and help him upright. “I don’t believe it! Why’d they put you in there? They never said you were coming!”

“What happened?” He put a hand to his head to try and stop the spinning. “I was... Rose! Ana! Where are they?”

“That’s the transmat, it scrambles your head. But isn’t it exciting to be here? You got chosen!” 

He struggled to focus on the petite, smiling blonde girl next to him. “Chosen?” the Doctor said in confusion as his wits came back to him. “Chosen for what? Where is Rose? And Jack... Jack had Ana...”

“Is Rose your wife?” the young woman asked him.

He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Hopefully, one day... if she’ll have me, that is.” 

She smiled at him. “And Ana? Jack?”

“Our... baby,” he told her, the jumbled wreckage of his thoughts finally coming together as he gradually regained control of his mind. “Ana is our baby. Jack is her... well... uncle might be too generous of a term.” His hearts picked up in panic as it once against washed over him that Ana and Rose were not anywhere near him. “But for all intents and purposes, it works. Where the hell are they? And, where am I?”

“I don’t know where your family is, I’m sorry. But they’ll know where you are soon, because they’ll be watching! You’re a housemate! You’re in the house, isn’t that brilliant?”

He vaguely registered another voice protesting in the background, but his panic-addled mind was already occupied, instinctively focusing on making sense of the bright decor of the house and categorizing every possible exit. He had no idea where Rose, Jack, or Ana could be. All he remembered was watching in a panic as the two people he cared most about in the entire universe (and Jack) were engulfed in light and pulled from his ship. He knew Jack would do anything possible to protect the baby, but not knowing where they were was causing his hearts to stutter in his chest and he knew he needed to calm himself down to think rationally and to get himself out of there.

He had the bloody loves of his lives to save.

And, he supposed, saving Jack would be favorable as well.

******

The first thing that Rose felt as awareness slowly came back to her was a cold, hard floor against her cheek. She opened her eyes and saw a man kneeling over her in the dimly lit room.

“What happened?” she asked, her head throbbing.

“It's all right,” he replied. “It's the transmat. Does your head in. Get a bit of amnesia. What's your name?”

“Rose. But where's the Doctor? Oh, God, where’s Ana?” Rose tried to get to her feet, but the room was still spinning out of control. “Jack had her in the carrier... where are they?”

“I dunno who they are, but it’s only you here. Just remember do what the android says. Don't provoke it. The android's word is law.” 

“What do you mean, android? Like a robot?”

“Positions, everyone!” a voice called out. Rose’s head was still swimming too much to tell where it was coming from. “Thank you!”

“Come on, hurry up,” the man told her as he helped her to her feet. “Steady, steady.” 

“Please, you have to help me find them,” Rose pleaded. “I was traveling, with the Doctor and our daughter, Ana. She’s with our friend, Jack. She’s just a baby and I don’t know where they are...”

“That's enough chat. Positions! Final call! Good luck!”

“But I'm not supposed to be here! I have to find them!”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. It says Rose on the podium. Come on.” He gestured over to a stage set with a semi-circle of identical podiums and Rose felt her jaw drop at the sight of her name on one of them. 

The man, who seemed to be called Rodrick, based on the name scrawled next to hers, led Rose to her place. She glanced around at the stage and at the other contestants, a feeling of recognition washing over her.

“Hold on, I must be going mad. It can't be. This looks like the...”

“Android activated!” 

“Oh, my God,” Rose breathed. “The android. The Anne _droid_.”

A mechanical, yet still oddly familiar voice sounded through the stage. “Welcome to The Weakest Link!”

******

Jack woke up to Ana squirming and making tiny, distressed noises against his chest. He was lying on his back with his niece still snuggled safely in the well-padded, sturdy baby carrier. His vision swam before his eyes, so he shut them quickly, not before pressing a hand against the baby’s head and making a gentle, soothing noise to her.

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” he murmured, cradling her head as he attempted to stand. “We’ll find your mum and dad. They’re probably right in the thick of all this trouble. Typical, huh?”

“Oooh,” a distinctly feminine voice said. “A single dad, eh? We gonna keep the baby on stage too?”

“Everyone loves a single dad,” another voice replied, more masculine this time. “And she’s darling. Keep her up there.”

“I’m not her dad, I’m her uncle,” he told them, finally able to get to his feet. He checked the baby for any visible injuries, thankfully finding none, before glancing around. He noted three chairs, side by side, and separated from another single chair by a wall. “Where the hell am I?”

“The transmat probably messed with your head a bit,” another voice said from his left. A well-dressed, humanoid male was standing there with his hand outstretched. “I’m Gorblax, Bachelor Number One. Nice to meet you...?”

Jack gave him a winning smile. “Captain Jack Harkness. Nice to meet you, Gorblax. What’s this about a bachelor?”

“Places, places!” someone stated brusquely. “Jack Harkness, you’re Bachelor Number Two! Take a seat!”

He glanced around as he followed Gorblax onto the stage, his instincts on high alert as he catalogued the various weapons he kept on his person at all time.

He bent his head to press a kiss to Ana’s curls as he took his seat. A handsome blonde gentleman sat on his left. “Don’t worry, sweetie. Uncle Jack won’t let anything happen to you. We’re going to figure this out and get you back to mum and dad before you know it.”

“And now!” A booming voice sounded over the stage as lights began dancing over them and a tinny, retro theme song played in the background. “Live from Channel 6437, it’s... The Dating Game!”

******

The Doctor made his way through the room, his hearts pounding as he ran the sonic screwdriver over every escape route he could find as Lynda trailed after him. Nothing was budging even as he worked through every setting he could think of.

“I can’t open it,” he ground out.

“It's got a deadlock seal, ever since Big Brother five hundred and four when they all walked out. You must remember that.”

Ignoring her, the Doctor glanced around and willed his mind to note anything he might have missed. He located a strange looking alcove with an odd portrait in it. “What about that?”

“Oh, that's exoglass. You'd need a nuclear bomb to get through.”

“Don’t tempt me,” he growled at her, thinking of Rose and Ana somewhere outside of these bizarre four walls. He mentally ran through the contents of his pockets, noting any that might be useful in blowing a hole in the wall.

“I know you're not supposed to talk about the outside world, but you must've been watching. Do people like me? Lynda. Lynda with a Y. Not Linda with an I. She got forcibly evicted because she damaged the camera. Am I popular?”

The Doctor turned and stared at the young woman standing next to him. “I don’t know,” he replied.

“Oh, but does that mean I'm nothing?”

“Lynda, listen, I really don’t have time for this.” The Doctor said pushed past her. “No stupid little transmat gets inside my ship. That beam was 15 million times more powerful, which means this isn't just a game. There's something else going on.” Whatever was happening, Rose and Ana were out there somewhere, and he was not going to allow anything to harm a hair on either of their heads.

He turned to one of the eyes on the wall, the things he had surmised were the cameras and stared directly into the lens. “Well, here's the latest update from the Big Brother house. I'm getting out. I'm going to find my family, and then I'm going to find you.” 

******

“Well, Ginger, who are we going to eliminate first?” The host, a droid dressed and styled to look exactly like Jim Lange, asked the Dating Game contestant with a smile in his voice. “Bachelor Number One, Number Two, or Number Three?”

“Well, Jim,” the feminine voice began hesitantly. “this is a tough one. They all seem really great... but, since I have to choose one... I have to go with Number Three.” Her voice had gone suspiciously thick as the holographic crowd let out a collective “ooooooooooooh.”

Jack watched as the blonde man he’d come to know as Giorgio, shakily stood and headed over to a small chamber. It was eerily quiet in the studio as the man was closed inside and he began to sob. The quiet sounds of Ginger crying and stammering out apologies could be heard on the other side of the wall.

“Why is everyone so upset?” Jack asked. “Aren’t they just sending him back home? You all act like he’s...”

A thick beam of electricity shot into the chamber and Giorgio shouted in pain before he disappeared, leaving a small pile of ash behind.

Jack gaped at the space where Giorgio had just been standing and clutched Ana more protectively against his chest. “What the hell? Did you just...?”

“Yes,” Gorblax said, his face pale. “Either you get chosen... or you die.” 

Jack felt his stomach recoil. “I don’t remember this being part of The Dating Game in the 1960’s.”

“Well, that was boring, wasn’t it?” Gorblax answered. “They had to make the stakes higher to get more viewers. Seriously, haven’t you been watching?”

Jack shrugged. “Been a little busy.”

“Yeah, well, just so you know... I’m playing to win.”

Jack turned to the humanoid male with a charming grin. “Clearly you don’t know who you’re dealing with.” He cracked his knuckles, gave Ana a little squeeze, and began to formulate their exit strategy while being his most charming, seductive self.

******

“Doctor, they said all the housemates must gather on the sofa,” Lynda prompted as he continued to examine the various structures of the house in the hopes of finding an escape. “You've got to.” 

“I'm busy trying to save my family, thanks.”

“But if you don't obey, then all the housemates get punished,” Lynda pleaded.

“Well, maybe I'll be voted out, then,” he replied, unable to keep the hope out of his voice.

“How stupid are you?” the man he had learned was called Strood scoffed. “You've only just joined, you're not eligible.” 

“Don't try anything clever or we all get it in the neck,” Lynda told him.

He huffed as he conceded and plopped unceremoniously onto the sofa with the other three housemates. A voice rang through the room on a hidden speaker. “Big Brother House this is Davina Droid. Crosbie, Lynda and Strood, you have all been nominated for eviction. And the eighth person to be evicted from the Big Brother House is...” Davina Droid paused for a long time as the house members all sat around him, tense. “Crosbie! Crosbie, you have ten seconds to make your farewells, and then we're going to get you!” 

The Doctor leaned back into the sofa, already bored as the humans all said overly-dramatic goodbyes.

“Crosbie, please leave the Big Brother House,” the droid’s voice said over the speaker. A door opened into a corridor, and Crosbie stepped through with her head held high.

“I don't believe it. Crosbie,” Lynda sobbed.

“It's only a game show,” the Doctor attempted to comfort the young girl. “She'll make a fortune on the outside. Sell her story, release a record, fitness video, all of that. She'll be laughing.” 

“What do you mean, on the outside?”

“Here we go...” Strood said as he and Lynda raced back to the sofa to watch the screen.

The Doctor watched along with them as the young woman stood there, still and silent. “What are they waiting for? Why don't they just let her go?”

“Stop it!” Lynda scolded him. “It's not funny!”

“Eviction in five, four, three, two, one!” the droid’s voice sounded once more.

The Doctor watched in growing horror as a beam of light rushed down from the ceiling and hit Crosbie. After a few moments, she vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a small pile of ash. 

The Doctor sat up, no longer bored. “What was that?”

“Disintegrator beam,” Strood replied. 

“She's been evicted...” Lynda told him with her voice thick from tears. “From life.”

The Doctor gaped at her. “Are you insane? You just step right into the disintegrator? Is it that important, getting your face on the telly? Is it worth dying for?”

“You're talking like we've got a choice!” Lynda told him.

“But I thought you had to apply...”

The smug idiot Strood once again scoffed at him. “Don't be so stupid. That's how they played it centuries back.”

“You get chosen whether you like it or not,” Lynda explained. “Everyone on Earth is a potential contestant. The transmat beam picks you out at random. And it's non-stop. There are sixty Big Brother houses running all at once.”

“ _How_ many? Sixty?”

“They've had to cut back,” Strood told him. “It's not what it was.”

“It's a charnel house!” the Doctor exclaimed, his stomach churning unpleasantly. “What about the winners? What do they get?” 

“They get to live,” Lynda replied.

“Is that it?” 

“Well, isn't that enough?” 

The Doctor stood abruptly off the couch. “Rose is out there. And Jack, with Ana. They got caught in the transmat. They’re contestants,” he told them. “Time I got out. That other contestant, er, Linda with an I. She was forcibly evicted for what?”

“Damage to property,” Lynda reminded him.

“What, like this?” He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at one of the cameras, blasting the annoying thing into oblivion.

Immediately, Davina’s voice sounded through the room. “The Doctor, you've broken the House Rules. Big Brother has no choice but to evict you. You have ten seconds to make your farewells, and then we're going to get you!”

“That's more like it!” he exclaimed triumphantly. “Come on, then. Open up!” 

He could hear Lynda and Strood shouting after him, but he was convinced this was the only way he could escape and he was taking it, no matter what. If his hunch was correct, and it usually was, he had a feeling he would be fine. He hurried into the white corridor as soon as the doors opened for him. “Come on then, disintegrate me! Come on, what're you waiting for?” 

“Eviction in five, four, three, two, one...”

Before the beam could activate, the machine simply shut down and did nothing.

“Ah, ha!” he shouted. “I knew it! You see, someone brought me into this game. If they'd wanted me dead, they could've transmatted me into a volcano. Maybe security isn't as tight at this end. Are you following this? I'm getting out!” He opened the door he’d come through in time to see Lynda peering at him from the other side. “Come with me.”

“We're not allowed!” Strood protested.

“Stay in there, you've got a fifty-fifty chance of disintegration. Stay with me, I promise I'll get you out alive. Come on!” 

Lynda shook her head. “No, I can't. I can't.” 

“Lynda, you're sweet. From what I've seen of your world, do you think anyone votes for sweet?”

He held out his hand. Lynda hesitated briefly, then grasped on. He grinned at her reassuringly as he pulled her out through the rear door into a familiar looking corridor.

“Hold on. I've been here before. This is Satellite Five.”

He listened to Lynda explain how no one called it Satellite Five anymore, how it was only referred to as the Game Station. She nattered on about the different games, explaining that Jack, Rose, and Ana could be in any of the hundreds of possibilities.

“I don’t like this,” the Doctor muttered. “We've got to concentrate on getting out. And to do that, you've got to know your enemy. Who's controlling it? Who's in charge of the satellite now?” 

Lynda glanced around, the Doctor noticing the light breaker at the same time she did. “Hold on,” she said, flipping the switch.

A sign in front of them lit up, and the Doctor felt all the muscles in his body tense up at once.

Bad Wolf Corporation. 

Lynda gestured to the sign. “Your lords and masters.”

******

“You are the weakest link! Good-bye!”

“Colleen was clever. She banked all our money,” Rose told Rodrick. “Why'd you vote for her?”

“Because I want to keep you in. You're stupid!” Rose gaped at him, frankly quite offended. “You don't even know the Princess Vossaheen's surname. When it comes to the final, I want to be up against you, so that you get disintegrated and I get a stack load of credits courtesy of the Bad Wolf Corporation.” 

Rose felt the blood drain from her face at the familiar words. “What do you mean? Who's Bad Wolf?”

“They're in charge. They run the Game Station.” 

“Why are they called Bad Wolf?”

Rodrick stared at her life she was insane. “I don't know. It's just a name. It's like an Old Earth nursery rhyme sort of thing. What does it matter?”

“I keep hearing those words everywhere we go. Bad Wolf,” she muttered mostly to herself. Memories of the same phrase popping up in their travels assaulted her as she tried to work through them. Maybe she wasn’t here by accident. 

Maybe someone had been planning to get them here all along.

******

“Well, Ginger, the time has come to make your final decision,” the Jim Droid asked her. “Bachelor Number One, or Number Two? Who will you be taking on the romantic dinner date set for two in the next room?”

“Well, it was a tough one,” Ginger replied, and Jack scoffed. He wasn’t worried. He’d pulled out all the stops and he could tell he had wooed the bachelorette by his answers alone... the serenade had perhaps been a _little_ over the top but, like he told Gorblax, he played to win. “I’m going with... Bachelor Number Two!”

Gorblax fell to his knees as the audience stood up, applauding. Jack breathed out a sigh of relief before reaching out an arm and helping the blue man to his feet. He pulled him in for a brief embrace. “Try to stall, as long as possible,” he whispered. “Don’t go into the chamber.”

“Don’t be stupid,” he replied. “I have to. It’s the rules.”

“I’m trying to get us both _out_ ,” Jack whispered to him furiously. “Please, just listen...”

“Sorry,” he murmured. “But the best man won. Take care, Captain Jack Harkness.”

“No!” He shouted behind the man, but it was too late. He rushed over and locked himself into the chamber, obviously wanting to get the inevitable over with. A hush settled over the holographic crowd as the beam of light disintegrated him before their eyes.

Jack squeezed his own eyes shut. After a brief silence, the Jim Droid began to speak. “Well, Ginger! Time for you to meet your lucky bachelor! A former member of the Time Agency, a devoted uncle to the little angel you’ll meet in a moment, and a man who describes himself as _‘flexible,’_ please meet... your date for the evening... Captain Jack Harkness!”

The wall between himself and Ginger slowly pulled away to reveal an attractive brunette. Her eyes lit up at the sight of him (and really, who could blame her?). He pushed back the outrage he felt after Gorblax had rushed into the chamber, put on a charming smile and swept in for a side hug, minding Ana in the carrier.

“Are you two ready for a romantic dinner date?” the Jim-Bot asked, rolling up behind them and ushering them to a side door. “Our cameras will be capturing the magic as it happens!”

“Great!” Jack feigned enthusiasm as they entered a red-walled room. It was of decent size, with an old-fashioned table, set for two, smack-dab in the middle. A tuxedoed server was waiting to pour champagne from the silver ice bucket that sat alongside the table.

“Will the young miss be requiring her own seat?” the server asked.

“I’d prefer to keep her close, thanks,” Jack replied as he pulled out the seat for Ginger. 

“That’s so sweet,” Ginger told him as the server poured them each a flute of champagne before scurrying out of a nearly-hidden side door. 

Jack grinned, realizing he had found his escape route. 

“You’re very devoted to her,” Ginger continued. “How old is she?”

“Almost six months,” he said as he sat down and adjusted the carrier so Ana was comfortable being seated. She had fallen asleep about halfway through the show, and Jack was hoping against hope she would stay that way as long as possible.

“Your sister or brother?”

“Best friends, actually,” he answered, taking an appreciative sip of champagne. “We’d do anything for each other.”

“Must be nice,” Ginger said wistfully. “Having friends like that.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “We keep each other safe and watch out for trouble.” He discreetly snuck a hand into the pocket of his jeans, the ones the Doctor had applied his Time Lord technology to and made dimensionally transcendental. “Which is why I’m sorry that I have to do this...”

Ginger raised an eyebrow. “Do what?”

He grinned at her. “We’ll pick this up later, all right?” Without waiting for a response, he swiftly pulled the little spritzer from his back pocket and sprayed a tiny bit of it right in her face. The chemical concoction was meant to knock her unconscious without any lasting effects and, within half a second, her eyes rolled back into her head and she flopped inelegantly onto the table.

“Sorry, gorgeous,” Jack apologized, pulling his compact laser blaster out of the opposite pocket and headed towards the door. “But I’ve gotta go find my friends. I hope this won’t have a negative impact on our future.”

The door thankfully opened without him having to blast through it. He hurried through a dark corridor, calling up his wrist computer as he exited the game into a cold, empty hall.

“Come on...” he muttered impatiently as he waited for the little machine to call up a reading. “Two hearts, there he is... what floor?”

He found the Doctor on an observation deck and breathed a sigh of relief. He patted Ana on the back and dropped another kiss onto her curls.

“It’s gonna be all right,” he whispered as he got into a nearby lift. “Come on, let’s go get your dad.”

******

The Doctor was reeling from all the information Lynda had just given him. He had caused all of this, all of devastation that had come to Earth had been his fault. Shutting down Satellite 5 was supposed to have jumpstarted the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire, not cause the entirety of civilization to collapse. 

“Hey, handsome,” a familiar voice came from behind him. “Good to see you!”

The Doctor spun around quickly and nearly sagged with relief as Jack came into view with Ana snug in the carrier exactly as she had been before they’d been caught in the transmat. He jogged over and traced a hand over the sleeping baby’s curls. “Jack,” he breathed, lapsing into an old Gallifreyan oath of relief as he kissed the top of Ana’s head. “Is she all right?”

“She’s just fine,” he replied.

“You?”

“Peachy,” he replied with a grin. 

The Doctor stared at the man before reaching over and pulling him into an embrace. He was careful not to crush Ana, but he was so happy to see the two of them alive and well that it was difficult not to use all his strength to convey it.

“Thank you for keeping her safe,” he muttered before pulling back. “Do you want me to take her?”

“Nah, let her sleep,” Jack replied.

“Good plan... in fact...” the Doctor reached into the baby carrier and placed his fingertips against Ana’s temples. He slipped gently into her warm, sweet, content mind and his hearts threatened to break at the feelings that engulfed him. She had no idea what was going on, and if he had his way, she wouldn’t ever find out. He stroked gently against the sleep centers in her mind and coaxed her into a deeper sleep that, hopefully, nothing short of a nuclear explosion could wake her from. He retreated from her mind, dropping affectionate mental caresses anywhere he could to ensure she would wake feeling happy and loved.

“What was _that_?” Jack asked as Ana snuggled deeper into his chest.

“Just helping her sleep a little deeper, she doesn’t need to wake up in the middle of this.”

Jack nodded and hoped over to the information console the Doctor and Lynda had been using. “Any sign of Rose?” 

“Can't you track her down? 

“She must still be inside the games. All the rooms are shielded.”

“If I can just get inside this computer,” he muttered. “She's got to be here somewhere. Oh, hang on...” He dug around in his jacket pockets for a moment before producing a small gold bracelet and tossing it over to Jack. “Whatever is happening here, I don’t like it and I’d rather do our best to keep Ana hidden. Put this on her.”

“Perception filter,” Jack acknowledged with a nod before slipping the circle of metal onto Ana’s tiny wrist and adjusting it to the proper size. “Good idea. These games don't have a happy ending.” 

“Do you think I don't know that?” the Doctor snapped as he worked frantically at the console. 

Jack tossed his wrist monitor to the Doctor. “There you go, patch that in. It's programmed to find her.” 

“Thanks,” he murmured, attaching the device to the console wiring and attempting to get the two bits of technology to recognize one another.

“Hey there,” he heard Jack greet Lynda smoothly behind him. “Captain Jack Harkness. And _this_...” he gestured to Ana in the carrier. “...is my gorgeous niece, Ana Tyler.”

“Lynda Moss,” the young girl replied, somewhat flustered at the handsome former time agent. “Nice to meet you, Jack. And little Ana. Heard a lot about you both.”

“Really?” Jack replied, sounding surprised. “Well, nice to meet you, Lynda Moss.”

The Doctor sighed as he worked. “Do you mind not flirting in front of my daughter?”

“I was just saying hello!” Jack protested.

“For you, that's flirting.” 

“I'm not complaining!” Lynda reassured him. He could hear the smile in her voice.

“Muchas gracias,” Jack replied.

The console refused to light up in front of him and panic gripped at his hearts. “It's not compatible. This stupid system doesn't make sense.” He handed Jack’s computer over to Lynda and kicked the console in frustration while Jack removed the entire front panel so they could both work more efficiently. “This place should be a basic broadcaster, but the systems are twice as complicated. It's more than just television. This station's transmitting something else.” _“Like what?” Jack asked, concern evident in his tone._

“I don't know,” the Doctor replied. “This whole Bad Wolf thing's tied up with me. Someone's manipulated my entire life. It's some sort of trap and Rose is stuck inside it.”

The machine suddenly beeped in front of him and the read-out flashed across the screen. “Found her! Floor 407!”

“Oh, my God!” Lynda exclaimed, grabbing onto his arm. “She’s with the Anne Droid! You’ve got to get her out of there!”

The terror he’d been feeling in his racing hearts suddenly infused his entire body. He hopped down from the information deck and raced towards the lift, saying a silent thanks that it opened instantly.

“Come on, come on,” he muttered, willing it to move faster. Finally, the doors opened, and he ran through them as fast as his legs could carry him. “Game room six, where is it?”

“Over here!” Lynda called as they all rushed over to the door.

“Stand back,” Jack called, pulling out another blaster from his denims pocket. “I’ll blast it open.”

“Not with my daughter attached to you, you won’t,” the Doctor snapped as he began running the sonic over the handprint-shaped lock on the door. “You can’t, anyway, it’s a Hydra combination.” He hit the device over all the pinpoints in the lock, muttering to himself and willing the damn thing to open faster. When the door finally slid open and Rose came into view, relief washed through him. She was alive and well, standing at a podium, but looking terrified.

“Rose!” he shouted, and her eyes went wide when she saw him. “Stop this game! I order you to stop this game!”

“Doctor!” she screeched as she hopped down from the platform and began running towards them. “Jack, keep Ana back! The Anne Droid, it’s armed!”

She was so close, barely an arm’s length away. The Doctor reached out to grab her and pull her behind him, but time seemed to slow as the Anne Droid tracked her movement perfectly. He watched helplessly as the blue light careened towards her. Her brown eyes met his just before they went wide with shock and she disappeared right before his eyes.

Every muscle in his body seemed to stop functioning all at once. He forgot how to breathe, how to speak. The chaos in the background faded to nothing as all his senses focused on the small pile of ash in front of him.

He fell to his knees, the fight suddenly rushing out of him as he ran his fingers through what was left of the love of his lives.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All recognizable dialogue belongs to the BBC.
> 
> TenRoseForeverandEver was so essential to this very chapter! I don’t know what I would have done without her! She’s an absolute GENIUS and everyone should just worship at her feet!

It was as if a fog had descended around him. Everything was unfocused, dulled, sounds were garbled in his ears, and it felt like he was trying to swim his way to consciousness in the middle of a nightmare.

The only problem was he wasn’t dreaming. This was real. Rose was gone and his entire universe was crumbling down around him.

Guards came and arrested Jack, Lynda, and himself. He vaguely registered that the perception filter around Ana must have been working, as the guards never acknowledged her, simply marched the four of them to a cell. Flashes of light alerted him that they were taking his mug shot, and he moved slowly on autopilot as the guards began their line of questioning.

He swallowed his grief down, pushed it away for a moment and let his rising anger take over. He had to find out what was going on. If he figured that out, he would find who was responsible for killing Rose.

And he would make them _pay_.

He, Jack, and Rose had come up with a contingency plan ages ago in case they were arrested and had to escape. Trusting that Lynda would follow their lead, he turned to Jack the moment the guards turned their backs to leave the cell and spoke his first words since they’d lost Rose.

“Let’s do it.”

Jack nodded and the two of them stood up, taking the guards out easily with a few well-placed punches. He grabbed his sonic screwdriver and one of the large weapons sitting nearby, and he noticed Jack pulling a spare blaster from the vague area of his back pocket.

He didn’t bother asking where he’d managed to hide that.

He led their little party determinedly to the lift. Ana slept on, the little telepathic nudging he’d given her keeping her in a deep sleep. They had several hours where wild horses wouldn’t be able to wake her, and he was grateful for it. He needed to focus.

Once they were inside the lift and careening towards floor 500, he finally let a tiny hint of his steel armor down. He glanced over at Jack, who was stroking Ana’s back through the carrier with one hand and carrying a 50th Century blaster with the other. He felt a surge of affection for the man, and before he could even register what his body was doing, he had raised his hand to squeeze at his shoulder.

Jack glanced at him, his blue eyes steely with determination. “I know, Doc,” he murmured. “We’ll find them.”

The Doctor nodded and felt a shaky sigh escape his lips. He leaned over the carrier and pressed a brief kiss to Ana’s curls, his eyes closing against the surge of desperate, clawing grief that engulfed his twin hearts.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he murmured, nuzzling the soft hair briefly before straightening once again and choking back the aching chasm that threatened to consume him every moment Rose had been gone. It would be so easy to give in, to allow himself to plummet into dispair, but he fought against its pull. He _had_ to keep his head as clear as possible so he could figure out who was responsible for what was happening at the Game Station.

The lift’s doors opened and the Doctor strode forward. He registered Lynda and Jack following, the latter snapping orders as the handful of staff scattered throughout the room. He marched down the corridor of workstations, allowing his seething anger to suppress the revulsion he felt at the sight before him. The centerpiece of the entire chamber was a young, sickly pale woman who he could barely call “human.” Her eyes moved over the ceiling without actually seeing anything, thick cables seemed to be embedded in her skin and connected to various bits of machinery. She was muttering vague, nonsensical statistics and it seemed as if information was actually transmitting out of her.

“Who's in charge of this place?” he demanded, hitching his gun threateningly.

She didn’t respond, she simply kept spouting out data. 

“This Satellite's more than a Game Station.”

No response. 

“Who killed Rose Tyler?” Saying her name again nearly caused his voice to hitch, but he fought against it. 

“All staff are reminded that solar flares...”

“I want an answer!” 

“She can't reply,” one of the staff members finally spoke up. The Doctor spun around to face him, his nerves completely frayed and the gun he was holding coming up to point in the dark-haired man’s direction. “Don't shoot!”

The Doctor blinked and suddenly, it was as though he was transported back in time. A stark, grey room filled his vision, the weight of the gun familiar in his hands, as Rose stared at him, wide-eyed with disbelief. _He’s not the one pointing the gun at me._ The echo of her voice was so clear that he could have sworn she was in the room with him. A real, physical pain shot through his hearts at the reminder of who he _was_ before Rose had swung into his life and made him better.

 _I am not that man anymore,_ he resolved, blinking once again and bringing floor 500 back into focus.

“Oh, don't be so thick. Like I was ever going to shoot,” he tossed the weapon to frightened man in front of him. Good riddance, he hated the bloody thing anyway. “Captain, we've got more guards on the way up. Secure the exits.”

“Yes, sir,” Jack replied.

“You,” he gestured back to the man. “What were you saying?” 

He glanced down at the gun in his hands and then back up at the Doctor. “But... I've got your gun.”

“Okay, so shoot me. Why can't she answer?”

“She's... er...” he replied nervously. “Can I put this down?” 

“If you want. Just hurry up.”

“Thanks. Sorry. The Controller is linked to the transmissions. The entire output goes through her brain. You're not a member of staff so she doesn't recognize your existence.” 

The Doctor felt his nausea rise again. “What's her name?”

“I don't know. She was installed when she was five years old. That's the only life she's ever known.”

“Doors sealed,” Jack interrupted, coming back into view, Ana still and snoozing in the carrier. “We should be safe for about ten minutes.” 

“Keep an eye on them,” he told him.

Jack nodded before scanning around the room with his vortex manipulator and heading towards a doorway that caught his attention. The dark-haired man continued talking. “But that stuff you were saying about something going on with the Game Station... I think you're right. I've kept a log. Unauthorized transmats, encrypted signals, it's been going on for years.” 

“Show me,” the Doctor commanded, pulling up behind the man as he began typing at the terminal. He let his whirring brain take over for a moment. He was one step closer to finding out what had happened to Rose and he wasn’t about to let anything else distract him.

*******

Jack confidently followed the readings that were running across the display on his vortex manipulator. They seemed to be coming from a doorway that he was fairly certain didn’t connect to any of the main hallways. He had a good idea of what he would find behind there, but as he reached out his hand to the lock panel, an angry voice startled him and he pulled back abruptly.

“You're not allowed in there!” a woman with dark, handsome features scolded him. “Archive Six is out of bounds.”

Jack almost rolled his eyes at her. Instead, he held up his blaster and turned towards her. “Do I look like an out of bounds sort of guy?”

She didn’t reply.

Jack got the door open with a simple handprint command and breathed out a sigh of relief. There was the TARDIS, standing proudly and looking unharmed. He removed the key from his pocket and let himself and Ana in. He took in a breath and allowed the warm, welcoming hum and slight telepathic thrumming of the ship center his raging thoughts.

He noticed Rose’s jacket draped over the console railing and his heart sank. He swallowed thickly against the lump in his throat, dropped a kiss to Ana’s curls, and made his way to the console.

Ana’s portocrib was set up just off to the side and he sent a brief, thankful thought to the ship. Ana would be safe sleeping inside the TARDIS while they worked, and he quickly unbuckled her from the carrier and bundled her onto the little mattress. He set the crib’s built-in monitor to transmit any changes to his vortex manipulator and, satisfied that Ana would be fine for the moment, he turned his attention to the view screen.

He tapped a few buttons and a read-out began scrolling across the screen. He stared at the words and gaped, repeating them in his head until he could fully comprehend what they meant.

“What the _hell_?”

******

“Solar flare activity in delta point zero fifteen,” the Controller muttered as the Doctor worked alongside the young man who he’d learned was called Pavale. 

“If you're not holding us hostage, then open the door and let us out. The staff are terrified,” the same woman who had scolded Jack about Archive Six admonished him.

“That's the same staff who execute hundreds of contestants every day,” the Doctor practically growled. “Including my daughter’s mother. Forgive me if I’m not sympathetic.” 

“That's not our fault. We're just doing our jobs,” she bit back.

He glared at her, his temper flaring. “And with that sentence you just lost the right to even talk to me. Now back off!”

Before she could respond, the power dropped and the room went dim.

“That's just the solar flares,” Pavale explained. “They interfere with the broadcast signal, so this place automatically powers down. Planet Earth gets a few repeats. It's all quite normal.”

“Doctor...” he vaguely registered his name being called, but he ignored it.

“Doctor?” a different voice asked.

“Whatever it is, you can wait.”

“I think she wants you...”

“Doctor? Doctor? Where's the Doctor?” 

He finally looked up and saw the Controller, suddenly frantic, calling his name. Immediately, he rushed over to where the poor girl stood.

“I'm here!” he told her.

“Can't see,” she continued. “I'm blind. So blind. All my life, blind. All I can see is numbers, but I saw you.”

“What do you want?”

“Solar flares hiding me. They can't hear me. My masters, they always listen but they can't hear me now the sun, the sun is so bright.”

“Who are your masters?” the Doctor commanded, his hearts racing as she spoke. 

“They wired my head. The name's forbidden. They control my thoughts. My masters. My masters, I had to be careful. They monitor transmissions but they don't watch the programs. I could hide you inside the games. Knew that you would find me.”

“My...” he trailed off as he swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to find the right word. “My partner, my daughter’s _mother_... she died inside your games.” 

“Doesn't matter.”

“Don't you tell me that!” he bit out. “Rose Tyler mattered! How _dare_ you say she didn’t!” 

“They've been hiding,” the Controller continued, ignoring him. “My masters hiding in the dark space, watching and shaping the Earth so, so, so many years. Always been there, guiding humanity, hundreds and hundreds of years.”

“Who are they?” he insisted once again.

“They wait and plan and grow in numbers. They're strong now. So strong, my masters.”

“ _Who are they?_ ” 

“But speak of you, my masters, they fear the Doctor.”

“Tell me!” he demanded. “Who are they?” 

Before she could respond, the lights suddenly came back on and he growled in frustration as she began her whispered counting once again. “When's the next solar flare?” he asked as he jogged back over to the small group of employees.

“Two years’ time,” Pavale replied.

The Doctor groaned. “Fat lot of good that is.”

“Doctor!” Jack sprinted over to him. “Found the TARDIS!”

“We're not leaving now,” he told him before glancing up and noticing Ana wasn’t sitting snugly in the carrier. “Where is she?” 

“She’s sleeping in the console room, nice and safe. Listen, the TARDIS worked it out. You'll want to watch this. Lynda, could you stand over there for me please?”

The Doctor glanced over at her, surprised. She had been so quiet, he’d forgotten she was there.

“I just want to go home,” she insisted.

“It'll only take a second. Could you stand in that spot, quick as you can. Everybody watching? Okay... three, two, one.”

He flipped a switch on a nearby console and a beam of light shot down over her. She vanished in a puff of smoke.

The Doctor stared at the space where Lynda had been and then back to Jack, completely dumbfounded. This wasn’t the Jack he knew. He would never...

“But you killed her!”

“Oh, do you think?” He grinned, flipping another switch. Lynda reappeared in another beam of light, just a few feet away from the Doctor. 

“What the hell was that?” she asked, putting a hand to her head as she stumbled a bit.

The Doctor gaped at her and stared at Jack who was barely containing his joy. Hope began to blossom in his chest.

“It's a transmat beam,” Jack explained. “Not a disintegrator, a secondary transmat system. People don't get killed in the games, they get transported across space! Doctor, Rose is still alive!”

The Doctor, in all his 900 years (save maybe for the first time he and Rose had kissed) had never experienced any emotion quite like this. His relief and complete disbelief bubbled over the surface and his face stretched into a grin so wide his cheeks hurt. He barked out a joyous laugh and embraced Jack, who held him tightly and wore an identical massive smile.

“It’s gonna be okay, Doc,” Jack murmured in his ear as they embraced. “We’re gonna get her back and it’s all gonna be all right again.”

******

Rose awoke slowly, the ground cold and hard beneath her cheek, just like when she had been transmatted to the Weakest Link stage. She felt woozy, slightly nauseous, and her muscles screamed loudly in protest as she tried to move.

Her last moments in the studio came rushing back to her and she sat up too suddenly, her head swimming. She’d been hit by the Anne Droid’s gun. She should have been dead. Bur, unless she was mistaken, she definitely _felt_ alive.

As the spinning in her head slowed, Rose vaguely registered a rhythmic hum hitting her ears. It sounded familiar, something she had heard before... something that was making her heart rate accelerate as she fought back against the panic building in her chest.

“No,” she breathed as the object of said panic came into view. She tried to push further away, but a wall blocked her. “No, it can’t be! You’re dead! I saw you die!”

The familiar, plunger-like appendage reached out to block her from escaping. She couldn’t scream, she couldn’t run and her heart sank in defeat. She’d somehow survived the Anne Droid, only to face extermination.

_I’m sorry, Doctor._

******

The Doctor gaped as the Controller vanished before his eyes. She’d frantically recited the coordinates off, fighting the pull against whoever her Masters were before she was transmatted away. All that was left were the cables that now hung limply where she had stood for so long. The poor, brave girl had given her life to get those coordinates to him, sacrificed everything so he could find who was behind whatever was going on at the Game Station, and now she was gone.

He stared into the empty space, sending her a silent thanks before Pavale was talking again.

“Look, use that,” he gestured to the terminal in front of him. “It might contain the final numbers. I kept a log of all the unscheduled transmissions.”

“Nice. Thanks,” Jack told him, clearly impressed. He put on his most charming smile and extended his hand. “Captain Jack Harkness, by the way.”

“I'm Davitch Pavale,” he replied, clearly flattered.

“Nice to meet you, Davitch Pavale.” 

“There's a time and a place,” the Doctor groused as he scanned over the file in front of him.

“Are you saying this entire set up's been a disguise all along?” the dark-haired woman asked.

“Going way back,” the Doctor replied. “Installing the Jagrafess a hundred years ago. Someone's been playing a long game, controlling the human race from behind the scenes for generations.”

“Click on this,” Jack told him. “The transmat delivers to that point, right on the edge of the solar system.”

“There's nothing there,” the woman said.

“It looks like nothing because that's what this satellite does. Underneath the transmission there's another signal.”

“Doing what?” Pavale asked.

“Hiding whatever's out there. Hiding it from sonar, radar, scanner. There's something sitting right on top of planet Earth, but it's completely invisible. If I cancel the signal...”

He hit a few keys and glanced up at the screen, all of the blood draining from his face. His hearts gave a sickening lurch, his stomach revulsed, and he had to force himself to remain standing when he saw the familiar ship spinning lazily on the screen. 

“That's impossible,” Jack breathed. “I know those ships. They were destroyed.”

“Obviously, they survived.”

“Who did?” Lynda interjected. “Who are they?”

“Two hundred ships,” the Doctor began, his voice low. “More than two thousand on board each one. That's just about half a million of them.”

“Half a million what?” Pavale demanded.

The Doctor grimaced, swallowing back the sick feeling creeping up into his throat and willing his hands not to shake as his fury built. “Daleks.”

******

“Alert! Alert!” One of the Daleks wheeled into the room, its lights flashing. “We are detected!”

“It is the Doctor! He has located us!”

Rose’s heart leapt. She knew he would find her.

“Open communications channel!”

“The female will stand! Stand!” The Dalek closest to Rose commanded.

“All right, hang on, I’m standing,” Rose muttered as she scrambled to her feet. A screen materialized into view, and she felt some of the tension in her muscles relax as the Doctor’s beloved face came into her line of sight.

He was all right, and his demeanor was calm enough that she could guess Ana was fine as well. She let out a breath of relief as a grating, robotic voice began to speak. 

“I will talk to the Doctor!” one of the Daleks stated.

“Oh, will you? That’s nice. Hello!”

Rose couldn’t suppress her smile. Daft alien.

“The Dalek Stratagem nears completion!” it continued. “The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene.”

“Oh, really? Why’s that then?”

“We have your associate.” Rose noticed his eyes slide over to where she must have been visible on the screen. His Adam’s apple bobbed almost imperceptibly but his gaze remained steely. “You will obey or she will be exterminated!”

His stare never wavering, he remained quiet for perhaps half a second before he responded with a simple, “No.”

If Daleks had facial expressions, Rose was certain they would have glanced at once another completely confused. “Explain yourself!”

“I said no,” the Doctor continued.

“What is the meaning of this negative?”

“It means no,” he told them, his voice cold and dangerous.

“But she will be destroyed!”

“No!” The Doctor stood up as his tone turned forceful and authoritative. His face alone should have sent the Daleks fleeing back where they came from. “Because this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to rescue her.”

Rose’s heart began thudding in her chest. She swelled up with pride and adoration for the mad alien in front of her.

“I'm going to save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet,” he continued. “And then I'm going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!”

Rose couldn’t help it. She was desperate to snog him senseless.

“But you have no weapons, no defenses, no plan!”

“Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death? Rose?”

“Yes, Doctor?” she called to him.

His expression shifted in an instant at the sound of her voice. His face completely changed from angry, murderous, and even a touch fearful, to the tender and loving expression she had come to know so well. He smiled _her_ smile and Rose’s knees almost gave out. “I'm coming to get you.”

He held the sonic screwdriver up to the screen before it shut down in front of them.

All around her, the Daleks were in what Rose supposed was their version of a complete panic. “The Doctor is initiating hostile action!”

“The stratagem must advance. Begin the invasion of Earth!”

“The Doctor will be exterminated!”

“Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!”

Rose stood back and tried to will her galloping heart back to a normal pace. The Doctor was coming for her, and they would face whatever came next _together_.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys could guess what was coming but in case you didn’t, I’m so...SO sorry!
> 
> TenRoseForeverandEver has the patience of a SAINT and she is the only reason this chapter is at all coherent!
> 
> Thank you all so much for the wonderful reviews and kudos! I will dedicate an entire day to responding eventually, but just know that all your wonderful feedback keeps me going!

The Doctor had explained to Rose long ago, after their first encounter with the Dalek in Utah, that the creatures were genetically engineered monsters. All emotions except hate had been removed, leaving perfect killing machines. They felt no love, no fear, no remorse, and were convinced that this made them superior to all other creatures.

However, despite the monotonous, mechanical commands her captors were passing back and forth, there was an unmistakable air of panic running through these supposedly emotionless creatures, and rightly so. Within minutes, the TARDIS had broken through all their defenses and had begun to materialize perfectly around her... and, unfortunately, the Dalek that happened to be right next to her.

“Rose, get down!” the Doctor shouted once she was fully inside the ship. “Get down!”

She ducked just as the Dalek screeched “EXTERMINATE!” and shot a blast in the Doctor’s direction. She couldn’t see much from her vantage point, but she breathed out a sigh of relief when the beam hit the wall instead of its intended target and Jack took the creature out with some kind of massive blaster. 

Rose’s gaze slid from the destroyed Dalek up to the Doctor, who was staring at her like she was the only thing in the universe.

He crossed the console room in a few steps, and she felt every muscle in her body relax as he pulled her out of her crouched position and drew her into his arms.

“Told you I would rescue you,” he murmured in her ear.

“Never doubted it,” she told him before pulling back to gaze into those beloved blue eyes.

“I did,” the Doctor quipped with a heavy smile that didn’t reach his eyes. His hungry gaze was singularly focused on her face, his hands coming up to cradle her cheeks as he drew in a deep, shuddering breath. He urged her even closer with gentle pressure and pressed his forehead to hers. “Rose,” he whispered. “I thought...”

“I know,” she said, letting her hands run through his closely-shorn hair. “‘S all right, I’m here now, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he agreed, that daft grin she adored so much spreading across his face and lighting up his features. She couldn’t help herself, she stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed him, whimpering as pulled her flush against him without warning.

“Hey, hey,” Jack’s voice broke through the fog of their reunion, “keep it PG in front of the baby, will ya?”

Rose turned and nearly cried out in relief when she saw Ana sitting comfortably in Jack’s arms, squealing happy baby squeals and struggling to get to her. She moved out of the Doctor’s embrace and sprinted over to where Jack was standing, scooping Ana up and hugging her as tightly as she could.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, sweetheart,” Rose said, rocking the baby back and forth and pressing kisses into her dark curls.

She glanced up and found Jack watching them, his eyes suspiciously damp. As soon as he saw he was caught, he sniffed a bit and gave her his patented, movie-star smile. “Don’t I get some of that?”

Rose grinned at him in return before reaching out with one arm and drawing him into her embrace. She pressed her face into his shoulder and squeezed him. “Thank you, Jack.”

“No thanks necessary,” he told her as he hugged her back just as tight. “She’s my niece after all.”

Rose stepped over to where the Doctor was examining the remains of Dalek. She peered at the pathetic body of the creature, lying in its shattered casing. “You said they were extinct? How comes they’re still alive?”

Rose didn’t miss the way the Doctor’s back tensed before he spoke. “My people were destroyed in the Time War, but they took the Daleks with them. Or so I thought. It almost made it worth it.”

“The Time War?” Jack glanced at the Doctor in awe. “I thought that was just a legend.”

“Now it turns out they died for nothing.” He stood up, backing away from the Dalek.

Rose clutched Ana close to her, watching the despair play out on her beloved Doctor’s face, and felt the weight of fear heavy in her gut. “There's thousands of them now. We could hardly stop one. What're we going to do?”

“Well,” the Doctor met her worried gaze, “no good sitting around here, chin-wagging!” He rubbed his hands together with a bravado Rose knew he didn’t really feel. “Let’s go meet the neighbors!”

“Wait!” Rose stopped him as he turned to bound towards the doors. She pressed another kiss to Ana’s forehead and walked her back to the portocrib. She touched a nearby coral strut and closed her eyes, pleading with the TARDIS to keep Ana happy and safe while they met the danger outside the door. The ship sent a soothing mental caress and began projecting images of stars, constellations, and galaxies just above the little cot. She ran a hand over Ana’s curls before turning around and taking her place next to the Doctor. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

“Are you sure?” The Doctor asked as he laced their fingers together. “You could stay here with her, you know.”

“I’m not letting you two out there alone,” she scoffed. “You’re both rubbish without me.”

“Can’t argue with that,” he murmured, brushing his lips over her temple before releasing her hand and pulling the door open, stepping out to face the Daleks.

The Dalek’s cries of “EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!” made her heart seize with fear before she could even exit the ship. The beams dissipated harmlessly against an invisible barrier that must have extended out from the TARDIS, and Rose was able to relax just a bit knowing that they were safe for the moment.

“Is that it?” the Doctor jeered. “Useless! _Nul points._ It's all right, you two, come on out. That forcefield can hold back anything.”

“Almost anything,” Jack added. Rose elbowed him in the ribs and rolled her eyes at him.

“Yes, but I wasn't going to tell them that. Thanks.”

Jack had the good sense to look chastised. “Sorry.” 

The Doctor turned back to the Daleks, the dark, menacing look in his eyes making Rose’s pulse pick up. It was such a shift, the cool anger in his blue eyes a direct contrast to the warm looks he directed at her, Ana, and even Jack on occasion. “Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek home world?” His voice was low and dangerous. “The Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all your emotions but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left, and that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face me? So, tell me. How did you survive the Time War?”

“They survived through me.” 

Rose turned in the direction that the deep, grumbling, and decidedly non-Dalek voice had sounded from. A glow of eerie blue lights emanated from the dark, cavernous chamber. As the echo of the voice died away, the Doctor moved toward it and the area lit up, exposing a massive apparatus that strongly resembled a giant Dalek casing. A creature was floating inside of it. It vaguely resembled a Dalek in its true form with it’s one huge eye and tentacles, but it had a blue tint to its skin and seemed perfectly content to have every being’s attention focused on it.

“Rose, Captain, this is the Emperor of the Daleks,” the Doctor told them, his voice low, disgusted awe coloring his tone. Rose trembled and wanted nothing more than to press into his side, bringing him comfort as well as drawing her own from his closeness. But she knew he kept his distance for a reason. If the Daleks sorted their true relationship, it would put her in far more danger than she already was.

“You destroyed us, Doctor,” the Emperor continued. “The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive.”

“I figured that bit out, thanks,” the Doctor snapped.

“DO NOT INTERRUPT!” One of the nearby Daleks sounded, the sentiment echoed several more times by different creatures.

“I think you're forgetting something. I'm the Doctor, and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got one way of stopping me. So, if anybody's going to shut up, it's you!” The last part of his statement was shouted at the Daleks, his face murderous as he turned on them, and a shiver ran down Rose’s spine. 

As quickly as his anger had come over him, it seemed to dissipate in the same amount of time as he turned back to the Emperor, his demeanor suddenly casual, even _pleasant_. Rose knew better. She could tell in the set of his shoulders, the ever-so-slight tremor in his hands, that the anger was still there, but controlled, just simmering below the surface. “Okey doke. So, where were we?”

Unphased, the Emperor continued. “We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth, harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed. They all came to us. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted. The seed of the human race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured.”

“So you created an army of Daleks out of the dead,” the Doctor responded in a low voice.

Rose’s stomach heaved. “That makes them half human.”

“Those words are blasphemy!” the Emperor snapped at her.

“DO NOT BLASPHEME!” another Dalek screeched in response. Two more creatures echoed it. Each time they heard the phrase, the Doctor’s face moved from Dalek to Dalek, his expression growing more and more baffled as they spoke. 

“Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?” 

“I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the God of all Daleks!” 

“WORSHIP HIM! WORSHIP HIM! WORSHIP HIM!” the Daleks around them chanted.

The Doctor looked horrified. “They're insane. Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity. You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever. We're going.”

“You may not leave my presence!”

Rose had to hold back a snort of amusement. That... _thing_ may have been the God of the Daleks, but he was completely thick if he thought he had any authority over the Doctor. Chants of the Daleks followed them, and the sounds of their lasers hitting the TARDIS shields were the last things she heard before the Doctor shut the doors behind them.  
Rose immediately moved to Ana’s cot and scooped her up, clutching her against her chest as she watched the Doctor rest his forehead against the door. She knew in her heart that the TARDIS was soothing him as best as she could, but that didn’t mean Rose couldn’t help too. She moved around the console and met him at the door, wrapping a hand over his bicep.

“Hey,” she murmured, her heart breaking at the storm brewing in those beloved blue eyes. He looked... _shattered_. She could see fury stewing, anguish swirling, but exhaustion seemed to be closest to the surface and she wasted no time in pulling him into an embrace, with Ana settled gently between them.

His arms encircled them both and pulled them as close as he could. He pressed his cheek to the top of Rose’s head and let out a deep, shuddering breath.

“It’s gonna be okay,” she whispered. “We’re here. And we’re not going anywhere.”

“Rose...” he replied, his voice pleading.

Rose cut him off before he could continue. “ _No_ ,” she stated firmly. “We’re not going _anywhere_ , do you hear me?”

The Doctor let out a sigh but she felt him nod and hug them tighter. 

They would get through this.

******

The Doctor quickly brought them back to floor 500. He raced out of the TARDIS as soon as they had landed, shouting commands at the various personnel while Rose once again tucked Ana into the portocrib. She hated having the baby out of her sight, but the TARDIS truly was the safest place for her, and Rose knew the magnificent ship would alert them if Ana needed anything. She took a moment and admired the lovely projections the TARDIS was showing to Ana before following the Doctor and Jack out into the Game Station.

“I didn’t want to leave you three,” she heard a distinctly feminine voice say to the Doctor. 

She caught the soft, paternal glance the Doctor gave the young woman before he turned to Rose. “Ah, Rose! Fantastic! This is Lynda, Lynda, this is Rose Tyler, my...”

“Oh, I’m so glad he found you!” Lynda jumped up and hugged Rose spontaneously. The action took Rose by surprise, but she hugged her back awkwardly as the Doctor shrugged over Lynda’s shoulder. “He was in a right state, trying to find you... and then, after the Anne Droid?” Lynda pulled back and shuddered. “Anyway, I’m so happy you’re okay! Where’s the baby?”

“She’s on our ship,” Rose replied. “Safe as houses.”

“Oh, my God,” a man with dark hair interrupted. “The fleet is moving. They’re on their way.”

The Doctor gaped at the man for a split second before he moved, pulling various pieces from the different bits of equipment as he began talking. “Dalek plan, big mistake, because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone?” He glanced around the silent room. “Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter, this station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it... anyone?”

“You've got to be kidding,” Jack finally replied.

“Give the man a medal!” the Doctor told him, beaming.

“A Delta Wave?”

“A Delta Wave!”

Rose, of course, had no idea what her favorite pair of mad scientists were talking about. “What's a Delta Wave?”

“A wave of Van Cassadyne energy,” Jack explained. “It fries your brain. Stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbequed.”

“And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks!” the Doctor finished triumphantly.

“Well, get started and do it then!” Lynda piped up cheerfully.

“Trouble is,” the Doctor began, “wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about, oh, three days? How long till the Fleet arrive?”

“Twenty-two minutes,” the same dark-haired man who was watching the fleet informed them.

Rose’s heart sank, but the Doctor glanced up at the group with the same manic grin that she loved and got to work.

******

Feeling a bit useless as the Doctor continued connecting various bits and bobs and Jack began working on a forcefield to protect the satellite, Rose decided that it was a good time to feed Ana and give her a bit of a snuggle. While the baby was usually happy to play on the TARDIS, she didn’t want her to feel neglected by her little human/Time Lord family.

The TARDIS had a bottle already prepared and at the perfect temperature sitting on the console when she entered the ship. Rose caressed a coral strut and sent the ship a silent, “thank you,” before lifting a cooing Ana out of the cot and arranging the two of them comfortably on the jump seat. Ana began drinking from the bottle with gusto, and Rose grinned at what an enthusiastic eater she was.

Rose sighed, brushing a dark curl off Ana’s forehead. “I’m sorry, love. I wish you didn’t have to be here in the middle of all this mess.” Rose bent over and pressed a kiss to the top of Ana’s head. “Part of being close to the Doctor, I reckon. Thing is, it’s all worth it, love.” She swallowed against the lump in her throat as her heart filled with love. “He shows you a better way of living your life, Ana. He shows you how to take a stand, how to say ‘no’ when things are wrong, and how to stand up for everyone around you.” She chuckled. “He’s worth fighting for, your dad. And I know he will do everything in his power to keep us safe.”

Ana smiled around her bottle before resuming her feeding, and Rose snuggled her just a bit closer. By the time her bottle was drained, Ana was fast asleep in her arms. Despite wanting nothing more than to hold her close and protect her from this nightmarish scenario, Rose transferred the baby to her portocrib and once again exited the TARDIS to see what she could do to help.

She was surprised to see that only the Doctor was there, feverishly working amongst the heaps of wires. He must have sensed her presence, because he immediately called her over and asked that she strip some wires for him. She settled in next to him and began to do as he asked.

“Where did they all go?”

“They’re down on level one, Jack is preparing everyone who is left for the fleet’s arrival,” the Doctor replied. “Ana all right?”

“Just gave her a bottle, and she’s fast asleep,” Rose answered. “The TARDIS is the safest place for her right now.”

“I’m aware of that, Rose,” he replied. “I just... don’t like that she’s mixed up with this to begin with.”

“Me either,” she told him. “But now that we’re here, we can’t just _leave_.”

“Could do.”

Rose’s head snapped up. “What are you on about?”

“We could just go,” he continued. “Let history take its course. Take Jack and Ana and go to Marabella in 1989.”

“Yeah, but you’d never do that.”

“No, but you could ask.”

Rose stared at him, dumbfounded.

“Never even occurred to you, did it?”

“Well,” Rose replied with a cheeky grin, “I’m just too good.”

The Doctor returned her smile and reached over to cup her cheek. She allowed him to pull her towards him and indulged in a gentle press of lips. She wanted so desperately to drown in his kiss, to forget everything that was going on around them for as long as they were able, but a low tone sounded from somewhere behind him and he pulled away with a start.

“The Delta Wave’s started building,” he told her as he grasped her hand and tugged her over to a console where he inspected it carefully. “How long does it need?”

He read over the data for a moment, and Rose’s heart sank as his head fell despondently forward onto the console.

“Is that bad?” she asked. His head shot up and he looked... _defeated_. “Okay, it's bad. How bad is it?”

“Bad,” he admitted. “It very well could be ready, but I don’t have the time to refine it.” His blue eyes were filled with a deep sadness. “It would kill everything in its path, with no distinction between human and Dalek.” He drew in a deep breath and grasped onto her hands. “Or _anyone_. The TARDIS isn’t even safe from it.”

“What are you saying, Doctor?”

His eyes bored into hers, the desperate edge to them almost scaring her. “I need you to go, Rose.”

“No,” she replied without even thinking. “Absolutely not, I’m not leaving you!”

“You need to get Ana somewhere safe! I can’t risk the two of you like this!”

“You’ll figure out a way!” Rose insisted. “You always do! That brilliant mind of yours just goes a million miles a second and you’ll fix it! I know you can!”

“Not this time,” he said, his voice going quiet and sad. “You and Ana can go back in the TARDIS, there’s a program that will take you back to Jackie.”

“I _can’t_ ,” Rose told him, her voice catching as the lump in her throat grew. “I won’t leave you here on your own! Not after everything we’ve been through! I belong _here_!”

“Ana needs you,” the Doctor told her. “She’s already lost her birth parents. She can’t lose both of us too.”

Rose stared at him, his words slowly growing more and more clear as she processed them. He wanted Ana to still have at least one of her parents alive, but that could only mean...

“You’re not going to survive this either, are you?”

The Doctor didn’t respond with words. His eyes grew desperate and sad and he simply wrapped his arms around her and drew her into a tight hug.

“I can’t make you go,” he whispered. “I know I can’t make that decision for you. But I’m asking you to trust me.” He swallowed hard as he buried his face in her neck. “The only way I can do this is knowing that you and Ana are safe.” He inhaled deeply before continuing. “Tell her all about our adventures, don’t let a day go by where she doesn’t know know how much _every one_ of her parents loved her.”

Rose couldn’t do anything but cling to him, all the breath rushing out of her lungs at his beautiful words for the little girl who had swept into their lives and become _theirs_. As she replayed everything he said, yet another statement stood out to her in a moment of blinding clarity. _He wouldn’t make her go?_ Time was that he would have tricked her into the TARDIS and sent her away against her will, because Mr. High-and-Mighty Time Lord thought he had the right to make her decisions for her. So much had changed in the last few months, both of their priorities had shifted, and the brilliant dynamic their relationship had taken on had become even more brilliant. 

She wasn’t ready to give that up. 

Rose tugged gently on the Doctor’s shoulders until she could meet his eyes. “I _will_ find my way back to you,” she told him, filling her voice with as much conviction as she could.

He offered a sad smile in return. “You can’t.”

“Says you.”

The Doctor chuckled and pulled her in for a kiss. Rose gave in and melted into it, letting their tongues mingle as she tried to infuse the touch of their lips with every ounce of love, devotion, and hope that she had for him. She let her hands roam as she memorized the way his closely-shorn hair felt in her fingers, the feel of his leather jacket against her palms, the way he tasted of tea and honey and something undefinably _Doctor_. She didn’t even realize she was crying until they pulled apart and the Doctor began kissing along the tear tracks on her cheeks.

“Rose Tyler,” he whispered, so close that their noses brushed. “I...”

“Shhh,” she interrupted, pressing her fingers against his lips. “Tell me when you see me next, yeah?”

He gave her a soft, sad smile, but he still nodded. Rose turned and headed back to the TARDIS, her steps heavy as she fought against the urge to run back into his arms. When she finally reached the doors of the ship, she turned back and saw him watching her, his arms crossed over his chest and shoulders slumped. She couldn’t do anything but offer a tiny wave as her lip quivered. The Doctor responded in kind, and she swore she could feel her heart ripping in two as she entered the ship and pushed the doors closed.

As the Time Rotor came to life behind her, Rose pressed her forehead against the cool wood and willed back the worst of her tears. 

“This is Emergency Programme One.”

The sound of his voice had her heart leap in her chest. She turned towards the console yo find a blue-tinged hologram of the man she loved, his gaze soft and loving as he spoke.

“Rose, now listen...”

Her legs suddenly couldn’t take her weight. She slid with her back against the door until she felt the cool metal grating beneath her. She pulled her knees up to her chest, tucked her head against them, and wept.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I’m even more sorry now than I was before

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I’ve had this done basically forever and then financial stress and quarantine stress followed by husband-working-mega-OT stress has killed my writing and editing muse. She may be coming back slowly but for now, at least I have SOMETHING to post!
> 
> Thank you as always to TenRoseForeverandEver for her eternal patience and mad beta skills!

_”Do it for me, Rose. Have a fantastic life with our little girl. Thank you for making me a better, happier man.”_

Rose felt the TARDIS shudder to a halt but couldn’t bring herself to move. She just sat crumpled against the door, weeping silently. She didn’t know why she was surprised that he’d planned for the possibility of sending her and Ana away. It was so bloody _him_. As much as she adored her daft alien, she could have _murdered_ him for this. 

Still... he’d given her a _choice_. He hadn't been prepared to send her away unless she made the decision to go... and in this case, she knew it really was the only choice they could have made. She _knew_ , logically, that Ana needed to be somewhere safe, but she hated that it meant abandoning the Doctor, leaving him to face down the Daleks with no one to hold his hand. 

She let out a deep, shuddering breath. There was nothing she could do about it now. She couldn’t fly the TARDIS; she’d never been able to find any rhyme or reason to the Doctor’s piloting to even guess. She’d promised she would find some way back to him... she just had no idea how.

She was completely and utterly _stuck_.

A tiny coo from Ana’s cot wrenched Rose back to reality and she rubbed her tired eyes. She could be strong for Ana; she _had_ to be. Her were limbs heavy and reality seemed just a bit fuzzy around the edges, but she still hefted herself off the metal grating and over towards the cot.

Rose’s chest flooded with warmth as Ana’s face lit up when she came into view. She scooped the baby up and held her close, burying her nose in Ana’s soft curls, content to just sway her gently back and forth and soak up the peace that her little noises and sweet baby smell brought her.

“Rose!” the familiar shouts of her mother broke through their quiet reverie as she thumped on the TARDIS’s door. “Quit snogging your mad alien and bring me my grandbaby!”

Rose drew in a deep breath and turned, making her way towards the incessant pounding and trying to hold back her tears. She drew open the doors and found the ship had landed in the familiar courtyard of the Powell Estate, and her mother’s smiling face sat in her direct line of vision.

“Hello, love!” Jackie cooed as she plucked Ana from Rose’s arms without preamble. “Doesn’t she look lovely! I swear she’s grown since you were here last! I tell you what, I had my doubts that he’d be able to land on Christmas Eve, but here you are! Whole family together for Ana’s first Christmas; isn’t it lovely?” She finally took her eyes off Ana long enough to glance up at Rose and her face immediately became one of familiar, motherly concern. “Oh, Rose! You’ve been crying! What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

A wave of exhaustion swept through Rose as she stepped towards her mother. Immediately, Jackie opened her free arm and pulled Rose into her embrace, and Rose let herself break down anew.

******

Mickey arrived out of breath, having run all the way from the garage the moment he’d heard the TARDIS engines. He found them, Rose still sobbing into Jackie’s shoulder. In an uncharacteristically tactful move, he didn’t pry for information or ask any questions, he simply tugged her arm gently and pulled her to him.

“Come on,” he murmured. “Let’s go get some chips, give that baby her first taste of potato, yeah?”

Rose let out a watery chuckle and she moved slightly out of Mickey’s hug, giving him a small nod as she wiped furiously at her eyes. 

“There now,” Jackie encouraged. “Chips sound lovely, don’t they, Rose? Say, does this little one have a pram somewhere in that big blue box? And maybe a coat? It’s more than a bit chilly.”

Rose nodded and opened the door to the ship, stroking a coral strut and sending a silent thanks upon finding a cozy-looking bunting and Ana’s pram popped up against the console.

“We’ll figure it out, love,” Rose whispered into the ship. The Time Rotor glowed just a hint brighter and Rose offered a small, sad smile before turning back to the doors.”

******

It wasn’t much later that they were sitting in a small booth, each with a container of food in front of them. Jackie bounced Ana happily on her knee and she and Mickey chatted a bit about the new pizza place in the area. Rose’s chips sat, untouched, in front of her as she stared out the window of the chippy and tried to make sense out of her impossible situation.

“Rose, eat something!” Jackie’s pleading broke into her jumbled thoughts. She wasn’t hungry. All she could think about was the Doctor.

“Two hundred thousand years in the future he’s dying and there’s nothing I can do.”

It was the first she had spoken about their return to Earth without the Doctor and Jack. It hurt just as deeply now as it had when she’d given the Doctor a final wave goodbye and shut the TARDIS doors behind her.

“Well, like you said two hundred thousand years. It's way off,” Jackie replied flippantly.

Rose's jaw tensed at her mother's dismissive tone. “But it's not! It's now! That fight is happening right now, and he's fighting for us, for the whole planet, and I'm just sitting here eating chips!” 

“Rose, you’re sitting here, being alive for your little girl!” Jackie replied. “Listen to me. God knows I have hated that man, but right now, I love him, and do you know why? Because he did the right thing. He sent my daughter and granddaughter back to me, and I will _always_ love him for that. It’s what a proper father _does_!”

Rose blinked back the tears that were pooling in her eyes as she watched Ana, happily oblivious to everything around her, grab for Jackie’s food. “But what do Ana and I do every day, mum? What do _I_ do? Get up, catch the bus, go to work, come back home, eat chips, and go to bed? Is that it?”

“It's what the rest of us do,” Mickey interjected.

“But I can't!”   
“Why, because you're better than us?”  
“No, I didn't mean that,” Rose told him, her tone gentling as she reached over and covered his hand with hers. “But it was. It was a better life. And I don't mean all the traveling and seeing aliens and spaceships and things. The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life. You know, he showed you too. That you don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. That you change your whole world because a little girl _needs_ you.” She took a breath and remembered the words she had spoken to the Doctor when they first found out Ana was _theirs_. “You make a stand! You say no! You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away, and I just can't...”

Rose couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t stop the tears from falling any longer. She pushed back from the table and, vision blurry, she darted out of the restaurant.

******

It didn’t take long for Mickey to find her back on the Estate, sitting on a bench close to the play area. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, her chin coming to rest on the soft black material as she fought against her tears. Mickey sat down next to her, and they sat in companionable silence for several minutes before he spoke.

“Your mum took the baby back to the flat.”

Rose nodded but didn’t respond.

“You can’t spend the rest of your life fighting your way back to him,” Mickey continued. “He doesn’t want that for you. He wanted to protect you and Ana. That’s why he couldn’t keep you with him.”

“I would have stayed,” Rose told him. “If it hadn’t been for the baby, I would have stayed right there with him. Now that she’s somewhere safe...”

“Don’t even think about it. You’ve gotta start living your life, Rose. You know, a proper life, like the kind he's never had. The sort of life that you could have with _me_.”

Rose’s head shot up at his words, shock warring with a warm swell of affection for her best friend. “You don’t want me, Mick. Me and Ana, we’re a package deal now. You don’t wanna be saddled with a stepkid so soon.”

“I would,” his tone had turned soft, and Rose could see the sincerity in his dark eyes. “For you. And for her.”

Rose felt her entire body soften at his words. She knew she could never do it. There was nothing more than friendship between her and Mickey anymore. But she’d meant what she’d said to the Doctor, what felt like so long ago now, that Mickey would make a great dad one day.

But he deserved to find someone who loved him, someone who was happy to be grounded on Earth. Not someone who would always be in love with a man who had literally shown her the stars.

Rose smiled and pulled Mickey in for a hug. “Thanks, Mick,” she murmured. “You’re a better friend than I deserve.”

“Careful, or I’m gonna remind you of that someday.”

Rose grinned and was about to retort, the feeling of their usual friendly banter a source of comfort to her, when large, white letters painted on the tarmac caught her attention for the first time.

“What the...” 

She stared, unblinkingly, for several moments, the familiar words taking form as her mind caught up with her eyes.

_Bad Wolf_.

Her gaze shifted to the low brick wall opposite their position, the words graffitied across the entire length over it. She launched herself off the bench. “Over here. It's over here as well!”  
“That's been there for years. It's just a phrase. It's just words.”  
“I thought it was a warning,” Rose murmured, mostly to herself as every instance of the phrase she and the Doctor had encountered raced through her mind. “Maybe it's the opposite. Maybe it's a message. The same words written down now and two hundred thousand years in the future. It's a link between me and the Doctor. Bad Wolf here, Bad Wolf there.”  
“But if it's a message, what's it saying?”

“It's telling me I can get back,” she replied, hope flooding her chest at the realization. “That I’m _supposed_ to go back! And that has to mean I can help him escape!” She spun around and sprinted to where the ship was parked. “All the TARDIS needs to do is make a return trip! Just reverse!” she shouted in excitement

“Yeah, but we still can't do it!” Mickey retorted, close on her heels.

Rose pulled the simple key from the chain around her neck and unlocked the doors, sprinting towards the console. “The TARDIS is telepathic. The ship is alive, Mickey. She responds when I talk to her, she lets us know if Ana needs anything... maybe not with words, but with feelings and warmth and stuff! She can _listen_!”

" _She_?“ Mickey scoffed. "It's a big blue box, and it's not listening now, is it?”

Rose ignored him, barreling on, her thoughts running a mile a minute as she recalled every moment she could from her time with the Doctor, a plan formulating in her mind. “We need to get inside it. I can think it all I want, but I must need a deeper connection to override the Doctor's emergency programme. Last time I saw you, with the Slitheen, this middle bit opened, and there was this light, and the Doctor said it was the heart of the TARDIS. If we can open it, I can make contact. I can tell her what to do.”

“Rose...” 

“Hmm?” she replied distractedly as she tried to work out how to get the console open.  
“If you go back, you could die,” Mickey told her, his voice serious and sad. “What about Ana?”

Rose turned to Mickey and shook her head. “It’s a risk I've got to take, Mickey. She’ll be fine with you and mum, yeah? Maybe...” Rose swallowed at the lump in her throat. “Maybe she’s better off. Safer.”

Rose turned away from Mickey, unable to look him in the eye, unwilling to see the expression on his face when he understood the level of sacrifice she was willing to make to ensure the safety of her little girl. She’d been stunned, herself, at the level of fierce protectiveness she felt, the extent she was prepared to go for another living soul; Ana, the Doctor... 

The Doctor had made so many sacrifices in his life, so many difficult choices... far too many. And now she would be there to hold his hand and support him, whatever the outcome. As much as she loved Ana, she knew if she didn’t come back, the little girl would be safe and loved with her mum and Mickey to raise her. 

If the decision meant Ana would be safe, Rose was willing to make it.

“Okay,” Mickey told her, the resignation in his voice plainly evident. “Let's get this thing open.”

******

In the time Mickey had managed to procure a heavy chain, one end hooked to the edge of the TARDIS console and one to the back of his Mini, Jackie had brought Ana down to where the TARDIS was parked. The baby was bundled adorably in the pram, and she beamed at Rose from beneath a cozy fleece blanket. Rose gave Ana a little smile and a wave before darting back into the TARDIS to keep an eye on the console.

“Start it up!” she hollered out to Mickey, who revved the engine and began to ease forward.

It was immediately evident that gentle wasn’t going to help anything. The chain was stretched taut, but it was having no effect on the on ship.

“Faster!” Rose called out to him. She could hear the screech of the tires as Mickey accelerated, but still the console didn’t so much as budge.

“It’s not moving!” she yelled out before turning back to the console and patting it reassuringly. "Come on, old girl. Help us out here. I know you want to get to him as badly as I do..."

A hot flash of resistance shot through her mind, the feeling conjuring an image of a petulant older woman shaking her head firmly. 

"I know he wanted us safe," Rose murmured. "But we want him safe, just as badly. Come on, love, please?"

The smell of scorched rubber filled her nose as Mickey hit the gas pedal once again, straining the chain just a bit more. Once again she felt the TARDIS's refusal shoot through her mind, but she stubbornly kept her eyes fixed on the console, watching for any hint of it coming loose, her fists clenched in anticipation as she urged Mickey on with cheers of encouragement.

But the words died on her lips and the hope drained out of her when the chain suddenly snapped right before her eyes.

She groaned in frustration and flopped back onto the jump seat, covering her face with her hands to keep the tears at bay. Why had she thought this would ever work? It had taken an earthquake caused by an unstable rift in time and space to open the console last time. Mickey’s little yellow car didn’t stand a chance.

“It was never going to work, sweetheart.”

Rose moved her hands away from her face and saw her mum standing there with Ana in her arms. The baby grinned and reached for Rose, who acquiesced and cuddled her close, breathing in the comforting scent of her curls.

“The Doctor knew that,” Jackie continued. “He just wanted you both to be safe.”

Rose nodded and looked down at Ana’s big blue eyes, the ones that reminded her so much of the Doctor’s even though there was no genetic relationship between the two. Ana deserved the chance to know the man who had accepted her as his own, the man who loved her so much that he gave her up just to keep her safe. 

The same man who needed Rose, now more than ever. 

“I can't give up.”

“Lock the door. Walk away.”

“Dad wouldn't give up,” Rose told her. “If it was you in danger, he’d do everything he could to get to you.” 

“Well, he's not here, is he? And even if he was, he'd say the same. He would want you safe.”

“No, he wouldn't,” Rose countered, remembering the selfless, brave man who had given his life to save the world. “He'd tell me to try anything. If I could save the Doctor's life, try anything.”

Jackie huffed. “Well, we're never going to know.”

Rose was growing frustrated. “Well, I know because I met him. I met Dad.”

“Don't be ridiculous.”

“The Doctor took me back in time, and I met Dad.”

“Don't say that!”

“Remember when Dad died? There was someone with him. A girl, a blonde girl. She held his hand. You saw her from a distance, Mum. You saw her! Think about it. That was _me_! You saw _me_!

“Stop it.”

“That's how good the Doctor is.”

“Stop it! Just stop it!”

“No!” Rose jumped up from her seat. “Because that’s who he is! He’s selfless and he would do _anything_ for me! Just like dad would do for you! And I can’t give up on him, I _can’t_! I love him!”

Rose caught the words a split second after they had flown from her mouth. She’d never admitted it out loud, had certainly never admitted it to her mother, but there it was. She _loved_ the Doctor, and she _wouldn’t_ give up on him.

Jackie didn’t respond, she simply gaped at Rose for a split second before turning on her heel and running out of the ship.

******

“There's got to be something else we can do,” Mickey said as they stood together outside of the TARDIS. Rose was leaning back against the side of the ship, rocking Ana back and forth absently as various ideas ran through her head, only to be quickly dismissed as each one proved more unreasonable than the last.

“Like what?” she replied, starting to feel that familiar sense of defeat creeping up on her. “What else can we possibly do?”

“We just need something stronger than my car,” Mickey told her. “Something bigger.” A distant rumbling caused him to glance up at something in the distance that Rose couldn’t see from her vantage. Her eyes were fixated on his face as his thoughtful scowl grew into something like shock and oddly enough... _hope_. 

“Something like _that_.” He pointed down the road and Rose pushed off the side of the TARDIS to see a huge yellow recovery lorry lumbering around the corner, headed directly towards them. As it drew closer, Rose felt her mouth drop open in shock.

Jackie Tyler, her _mum_ was in the driver’s seat.

As soon as the lorry stopped, Jackie’s petite frame hopped down from the cab. She walked over to Rose and plucked Ana from her arms. “Right, you've only got this until six o'clock, so get on with it.”

“Mum, where the hell did you get that from? And on Christmas Eve?”

“Rodrigo,” she replied simply. “He owes me a favor. Never mind why, but you were right about your dad, sweetheart. He was full of mad ideas, and it's exactly what he would've done. Now, get on with it before I change my mind.” She tossed the key to Mickey and stared at Rose expectantly. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

Rose raced forward and hugged her mother as tight as she dared. “Thanks, mum,” she whispered before pulling back, hot tears pooling in her eyes. “I don’t know when I’ll be back...”

“I’ve got her,” Jackie replied, unwavering. “Don’t you worry about anything. Come back to us safe, with that mad alien right beside you, that’s all. Do you hear me?”

Rose felt the corners of her mouth lift as she nodded. She pressed a kiss to Ana’s head. “I love you, sweetheart,” she murmured, closing her eyes against the sudden rush of love, protectiveness, and nerves that washed through her. “Be good for your Gran. I’m going to go get your dad back.”

Rose gave Jackie one last hug, and raced over to Mickey, who was holding the other side of a heavy chain out to her with a grin. She returned the expression and pulled him into a hug.

“Thanks, Mickey.”

“Don’t be gone long,” Mickey said teasingly. “I’m _so_ not a baby person.”

Rose giggled and ran into the TARDIS, affixing the hook to the console just like before, shouting “Ready!” a few moments before she heard the roar of the lorry and the chain went taut once again.

"Please," she begged quietly, placing her palm on the console and concentrating hard on sending pleading waves to the ship. "Please, help us. He's going to die up there, all alone, and I have to _try_. I can't do it without you." She looked up at the cavernous domed ceiling, hot tears welling in her eyes. " _Please_."

Something akin to a resigned sigh flashed through her mind and, miraculously, the console began to tremble  
Hope flared in her chest. “Keep going! Faster!”

The already loud engine revved louder and louder outside. She could hear her mother yelling instructions to Mickey and could even make out happy baby screeches coming from Ana, who wanted to be included in all the noise.

_Right at home in the middle of chaos... just like her dad,_ Rose thought fondly.

Despite the cacophony outside she never took her eyes off the console as it shook faster and faster. 

"Come on, old girl... come on!"

With a final rev of the engine, the top burst open and, suddenly, Rose was enveloped in silence. The sounds of the outside world faded away as tendrils of golden energy swirled around her.

That was the last thing she knew before her world became awash in glowing gold and the silence was filled with a beautiful song that felt like home...

******

“You are the heathen,” the Dalek emperor growled. “You will be exterminated.”

“Maybe it’s time.”

The Doctor closed his eyes as he accepted his fate. Daleks surrounded him, he had no TARDIS, and there was no way out. Jack was dead, his communicators gone silent, and his hearts ached for the man, his dear friend... Rose’s face flashed through his mind, that tongue-touched grin he adored so much causing a fierce longing to pierce through his hearts, but the image of Ana’s sweet face that came next made him smile softly.

They were safe. If he couldn’t do anything else, he had been able to ensure they wouldn’t come to harm. 

And that was worth _everything_.

He focused his thoughts on the faces he adored, determined that they would be the last things he saw before he died.

He was so focused that he almost didn’t register the faint, dream-like wheezing that began creeping up from somewhere behind him. Hope flared through him briefly, but he tamped it down and convinced himself it was simply his mind trying to soothe itself in the moments before his death, by bringing forth another great source of comfort: the ship he’d considered his home for the last eight hundred years. It was fundamentally logical. Positive thoughts would cause less stress on his cardiovascular and endocrine system, and therefore make the actual event less traumatic on his body.

The wheezing grew louder and louder, until it was unmistakable that the sound was _outside_ of his mind and filling the room behind him. His hearts began to thud out a panicked rhythm in his chest as his eyes snapped open. He swung around, fear and complete disbelief engulfing him as his beloved ship came fully into view.

“Alert! TARDIS materializing!” He barely registered the alarmed screeches of the Daleks that surrounded him.

“You will not escape!”

He couldn’t spare them a second thought. 

The TARDIS doors swung open and bathed the room in an ethereal, golden radiance. Energy flowed out in graceful tendrils around the achingly familiar figure silhouetted in the doorway.

It was Rose.


End file.
